itsawonderfilledlife

Some years it is easier to get in the mood for the Christmas season, and some years it is simply not something that comes easily. This year has been one that represents the later.

It is not that I do not like Christmas, or the extra trimmings that our society has added to it. It is not that I am sad or depressed. It is not even that I am abnormally busy (not being busy is the only abnormal that most people at my stage of life know).

This year just seems to be one of a lack of interest in lights, decorations, gifts and parties. This year I simply have one constant desire … just meditating on the birth of the Christ child.

I don’t want a modern single, teenage mom in stretchy jeans and braces … I want a young Jewish girl, betrothed to Joseph.

I don’t want to give and receive presents that are not needed (and possibly not even wanted) … I want wise men who came from the East.

I really don’t even want to go to parties, with food and drink piled high, I would rather stay home and research the original Christmas story, then write a post about what I have learned.

I just want a Silent Night, the First Noel and Away in a Manger … simple, special, sacred.

Yet, all around me is the noise of partying everywhere, complete with all the wrappings; excesses of food and drink, rooms full of people celebrating and no one aware that the celebration is about a baby. A baby born on a night when all around was noise, the noise of travelers traveling, complete with excesses of food and drink, and all the rooms were full. And no one was aware that way out in that stable cave in the rock, their Savior was being born, taking His first Earthly breath, drinking in His first drink, and his parents (on Earth and in heaven) celebrated.

But not just His parents. Out in the fields, a way off from the town of Bethlehem, were shepherds living and caring for their sheep, and out of nowhere angels appeared to the shepherds, and they too were celebrating, and praising God, while saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” (Luke 2:13-14)

And the celebrations continue to this day.

So, as we go through the motions of the worldly celebrations around us, like a people gathering due to a census, complete with all the trimmings. It is good to not forget what the shepherds did once the celebration came to them, from heaven,

“When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,
the shepherds said to one another,
“Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has told us about.””
(Luke 2:13-15)