One of the most glorious messes in the world is the mess created in the living room on Christmas day. Don’t clean it up too quickly. Andy Rooney
Meditation: Christmas is about God coming into our messes and arriving in our lives no matter what. Thus leaving the living room after the gift opening in a state of disarray for a few hours or days is a symbolic act of acknowledging exactly that. The stable Jesus was born in was messy. The world we are living in today is very messy, personally and politically both nationally and internationally. I am grateful that God is not a God who is only present in “Holy” places like sanctuaries and temples. I am so grateful that we believe in a God who enters history with the birth of a child, and therefore enters our humans’ smallest of places and our messiest of circumstances. We often have the desire to create and present “ideal” and orderly circumstances for God to arrive. Sometimes we teach the next generation “to behave properly” and “to clean up” so that God is pleased with us and would come. However, teaching this, we confuse the “Santa Claus story” with God’s story. God does not depend on us making ourselves and our environment “ideal”. God comes to us no matter what. God stays with us, messy as we might be. This is Christmas. This is truly Good News!
Prayer: God, sometimes we are too tired or sick to get ready for Christmas. Sometimes we don’t have anybody to celebrate with and are all alone for Christmas. Sometimes we just don’t feel like celebrating. Sometimes life is just a mess and Christmas is the last thing on our mind. Thank You for coming anyway. Thank You for seeking us out, especially when we don’t have the energy, joy or money to prepare for Christmas. Thank You that Christmas is not about us getting ready, but You coming, no matter what. And we are grateful. Amen
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 1. John 4:9
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