With Mary and Joseph on Christmas Morning

I woke up early this Christmas morning, not because a child was shaking me from my slumber as in the “olden days” but because I AM old.  In the quiet I got to hypothesizing what it was like the first morning Mary and Joseph awoke with the Son of God in their arms instead of in Mary’s womb. 

After the onset of contractions that sent Joseph scrambling for ANY PLACE to lodge.

After the last minute check in to the stable. 

After Joseph had to do way more than boil water and pass out cigars.

After the arrival of God through a human birth canal!  One moment it was two; the next it was three - and the newest member of the trio had made the trip, not just from Nazareth, but from Glory.

After a strange smell wafted in and lowly shepherds darkened their door - and then worshipped. 

After they drifted off to exhausted sleep and awoke to the hungry cry of a newborn.  Of God wanting breakfast.

What was it like for the new parents to open their sleepy eyes to see that diminutive God-human needing a new set of swaddling clothes and demanding a meal? 

October 11, 1982, March 18, 1985, August 3, 1988, and December 3, 1989 were each days of wonder and awe as Sheila and I looked at a brand new child.  There are enough syllables to articulate what happens in a parent’s heart.  I think that is why God created tears.  Blubbering just seems to express so much more than incomprehensible stammering.  But those children showed up as billions of humans throughout the eons of time.  Oh, the wonder never dims, but it is normal.

Ratchet that up by as many multipliers as you can comprehend… peg the wonder meter to “overload”… try to get into the minds of these new parents gazing at a child born but never humanly conceived… and add in that Creator God was embedded in this helpless, fragile, toothless, wordless, immobile, less than ten pounds package of bone, blood and tissue.

Surely they stared as the hard drive in their brains spun out of control endeavoring to process it all!  How they must have wrapped their arms around the God-child as they tried to get their hearts around what God had done.  Certainly Mary composed a song to the Savior as she rocked and He cooed (I mean, she sang the Magnificat, after all!).

Most of all I think they gaped in amazed, astonished, anxious awe. 

“Can this really have happened, Joseph?” Mary may have asked.  “I know I was there (chuckle), but Joseph, it is so surreal.  This child… I know it was the Holy Spirit Who placed Him in my womb… I know the angel said He is Messiah… but, Joseph, LOOK at Him!  Now that He’s in my arms, it’s different.  Could God have really given us the honor, of all people who ever lived, to have His Son grow up in our home?”

Sheila and I still look at our kids with wonder, (though there were days during the teen era when it was a different kind of wonder).  We look in wonder at the miracle God performed in conception, birth and growth.

For Joseph and Mary, did the wonder ever wear off?  Did they look at the child every day and remember all the miracles?  Did they shake their heads in awe as Jesus said His first words… took His first steps… had His first birthday… put on His first “big-boy” tunic… got His first haircut… got His first “boo boo”.. went to synagogue the first time…?

Back to the animal shelter in Bethlehem.  On the day after the Holy Night, I can’t help but wonder what it was like.  Just the three of them alone in a town eighty miles from home.  But not really alone.  For the Presence of God was never nearer.

On this day, please recapture some of that wonder.  Because of that birth, life, death and resurrection, we too can experience the Presence of God nearer than ever.  Lean into the awe of what this day is truly all about.  The marvel that God is crazy in love with you!

Those kinds of moments, experiencing God’s crazy love and the awe that He does, are worth waking up way early on this Christmas Day.

¹⁶So they (the shepherds) hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. ¹⁷When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. Luke 2:16-20 (NIV)

Boldly, Herb

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The Surprising Truth About Christmas

My wife, Sheila, did the unthinkable last week – she went shopping the day after Thanksgiving. It’s not that she really wanted to. Being a good mother, she went to get those perfect Christmas gifts for the kids at extraordinary prices. So at 6:30 am (as in the morning) she braved the crowds (yes, crowds at 6:30) to shop. It was awful. Lines and rude people were every where buying gifts for people they don’t even like. She did battle at one location of a national electronics store chain for an hour and then waited in line for half an hour. Only to be told when she was one customer from the checkout, "Put your stuff down and leave the store. We must evacuate because of a gas leak." Moans and groan everywhere. I think some of those people would have rather risked death than put down their prized purchases. All those wasted hours of elementary school fire drills.

Sheila finally did make it home safely. "I don’t think this is what Christmas is all about," she commented to me in frustration. " And I will never do that again!"

No, that is not what Christmas is all about. Nor is it what we most often picture in our minds. We know it is not elbowing other people for the last Pokemon pillow, but have we fooled ourselves with other wrong, but seemingly benign, thoughts of Christmas? How would we describe the perfect Christmas? See if you recognize this… as you pull into the driveway of the perfect Christmas, icicle lights hang from the roof, Santa is perched in the front yard to the right and snow is lightly falling. The air is crisp, but not cold. You are greeted by smiles all around. Even the family cat is grinning. The fireplace throws warmth and light into the living room decorated in reds, greens and whites. A perfect tree stands in the corner surrounded by the perfect number of presents. You enjoy a perfect meal with all the people you love and then exchange presents as Christmas carols fill the room. Everybody gets along. All the children and elderly cooperate. Martha Stewart couldn’t do it better. But that is not what Christmas is all about. That is what we Americans think of as Christmas. Family, food, emotional warmth, giving, decorations, music. All of it good, just not really what Christmas is about.

Christmas is about war. Now wait before you hit me or the delete key. Hear me out. Christmas, from the very first one when Jesus was born in a barn, has been about war. Jesus came that first Christmas night as an invading force into Satan's territory. God knew it and sent an angel choir to announce victory to the human captives. Satan knew it and immediately launched a counter attack through Herod to try to chase the advancing enemy away by killing the Christ child. Joseph and Mary knew it. They were told of the danger Jesus brought to them. He disrupted their lives and they could never be the same.

Jesus did not come to provide warmth and glow and television specials that make us feel good and cry at the same time, to let us have Christmas eve candlelight services that create emotional memories, to fill our homes with wonderful gifts from others, or to enjoy wonderful meals. Again, those are not bad, its just they are not Christmas. Jesus came to declare war on the Prince of darkness who rules this earth and thus set us free. Christmas was the first phase of the battle plan that eventually led Christ to the cross.

So why celebrate Christmas? Because it marks a love so big that God was willing to send all He had to free us from captivity to Satan. Satan’s plan was to kill, steal and destroy. It still is. But God’s plan is bigger, better, and victory is sure. He revives the killed, returns the stolen and rebuilds the destroyed. And He SETS US FREE! It all began at Christmas. THAT is why we celebrate. THAT is what Christmas is REALLY all about.