The Best Thing I Can Tell You About Christmas

My living room looks like a Hallmark store exploded. There is wrapping paraphernalia everywhere! The laptop I am typing this on is covered with blotches of creamed butter and sugar due to a Nanaimo Bar baking explosion.

Our nativity scene has a T-Rex, a beach towel clamp, and an egg shaker in it and half the characters are missing. We are down to one wise man, one shepherd, a fallen over angel and no baby Jesus to be found.

Not quite how I imagined Advent would look.

I start Advent with hopes and dreams of quiet, orderly, and contemplative moments with my family filled with daily readings, candlelight, and deeper connection with Jesus.

And I do pretty well for the first few days.

But then sickness hits and I forget how busy this season is for my husband and how tired and forgetful I am by this point in the year. About two to three weeks into Advent I emerge from the fog and see that our Jesse tree is looking rather bare and I have not done what I wanted to do.

Rather than candlelight, our Advent was fraught with squabbling siblings and many apologies on my part for snapping at my children. Instead of making space, I felt like I was just barely keeping on top of my to-do list.

And, now, I find myself in this disheveled living room wondering where Advent went.

We talk a lot, at this time of year, about Jesus’ love for us and I am glad that we do. 

But, we do not spend a lot of time talking about our failings. The pressures of the season haa unique way of exposing all the crack in our worlds whether we talk about it or not.

Maybe you feel like you missed the mark on Advent too or you are wishing you could cancel all the events on your calendar and hide away. Maybe you are dealing with a difficult diagnosis’, an addiction, financial pressure, grief, or a child you find difficult to parent. Perhaps your church is full of discord or your family or marriage is in conflict.

In a season where we are celebrating Jesus, it is unexpected to also be so keenly aware of our own need for Him. Especially in a culture that has made this holiday to be about perfection. 

When someone asks how Christmas was, we often respond, “It was just perfect!”. We do not say, “Well - I felt really in touch with my sinful nature, how about you?” 

But Jesus did not come to earth because we were perfect.

In fact, He came specifically because we were not.  He came because of a covenant He made. 

In Genesis 15, we find Abraham doubting the promises of God - he WAS an elderly man with no child yet. God graciously reminds Abraham of the promises He once made and then, to make His point, God asks Abraham to take a heifer, goat, ram, dove, and pigeon and sacrifice them by cutting them in half.

Abraham arranged the halves across from one another with a space in the middle large enough for two people to walk. Both members of this type of covenant were supposed to walk between the halves of the animals, symbolically signing their agreement with blood. If the covenant was not upheld, they would be sacrificed and killed like the animals.

Pretty serious.

But if there is anything God is serious about, it is His promises.

After the sacrifices had been arranged, Abraham went to sleep and, when he woke, he saw a smoking fire pot moving between the pieces.

For the Israelites, moving fire is often how God revealed His presence to them - a pillar of smoke by day, fire by night and the cloud like presence of God’s shekhinah glory in the temple.

The smoking pot, God’s presence, moved alone between the halves which meant that God was taking all the terms of the covenant on to Himself. Abraham had no responsibility and God would see it through, even being sacrificed Himself if the covenant terms were not upheld.

Christmas is about God’s immense grace to uphold His covenant and fulfill His promises.

The best thing I can tell you about Christmas is this: Jesus’ arrival has nothing to do with us and everything to do with His commitment to His promises  

Jesus still comes whether we celebrate Advent or not, whether we snap at our kids or dread our family events. 

Jesus comes even though our hearts are cluttered with sin and idols or our churches are filled with imperfect people (us included).

Jesus still comes if we cannot celebrate because our grief of lost loved ones is too much. 

Christmas is about God bestowing a tremendous gift of grace on humankind because of a promise He made. 

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Jesus still comes and it is a gift.

And His gift of grace is why we can sing the old Carols full of joy!  Why we can lift our hands and cry grateful tears. 

Can you hear the words of Jesus - inviting you to the manger to receive the gift of grace again? Can you hear Him remind you to stop striving to make yourself worthy but instead open your hands for the gift of a babe born to earth?

Rejoice! 

The covenant keeper has arrived and He will see all His promises through!

Rejoice!

Emmanuel has come to thee oh Israel!

Merry Christmas!