The chaos and the noise

As I sit here looking at my advent wreath all the candles are lit and I love sitting in the glow of its candle light. I see now one of my candles are leaning. We broke that candle as we put it in. It has tape around its brokenness and that tape preaches a sermon all its own. That’s what Jesus did that first Christmas so long ago. He came into a broken world not to just patch it but to heal it.

This morning we lit Christ Candle. It is white. It represents Jesus’ purity. Again I took a moment to behold the 5 flames, to be still and know He is God. I watched the flame flicker and I thank God for sending the Holy Spirit to be with us forever. Kevin always sends the scene in Charlie Brown Christmas Linus’ reciting Luke 2 “and that is what Christmas is all about Charlie Brown.” I still can’t read those verses without hearing Linus’ lisp. As I lit the Christ candle this morning it had such a pleasant smell. Honeysuckle I think, I reflect on that first Christmas morning. Jesus’ first visitors had come and gone to see this thing the angels had decreed to them. The manger scene was anything but pleasant smelling. But that’s who Jesus is isn’t it? He came into our messy lives to make a way back to our Father who art in heaven. I think of Mary holding the Christ Child. She didn’t have a sweet little nursery to lay down His sweet head. She didn’t have any cute crocheted baby blankets to wrap around Him. All she had were strips of cloth used to wrap new born lambs in so they could stay pure for sacrifices. I think about the hustle and bustle of Bethlehem that first Christmas morning. There was no stillness no silent night. People were scurrying about  registering for the census, going to the market, just being busy, walking right past this young couple who were new parents, all the while not recognizing their Messiah was in their midst. My heart goes out to Mary and Joseph. These were their people. Somewhere down some family line they were related to most everyone in Bethlehem at this time. King David had a lot of wives and a lot of children. And now their descendants had descended to Bethlehem to register for the census Cesar Augustus had declared. But there was a cloud of whispering surrounding Mary’s pregnancy. Was this truly Joseph’s son? Maybe that is why there was no guest room for her to give birth? Maybe that is why they bed down with the animals that night? It doesn’t matter it was all in God’s plan. He was the author of that fabulous night when His only Son entered out messy out of control world. Just think on this. Jesus entrusted His life to this couple. He who created the world became an embryo in a virgin’s womb. He who created Adam and breathed that first life into Adam’s lungs slid down the birth canal and entered our world and one of the first sounds He heard other than His mother’s cooing was a cow mooing. It’s all so absurd to me, a story so outlandish it’s hard to believe or wrap my head around. But I am so thankful for that first Christmas morning because Jesus came I am set free. Like Ebenezer Scrooge in Dicken’s “THE CHRISTMAS CAROL” recognized that Christmas morning after his ghostly visitations, “It’s Christmas Day! I haven’t missed it!” I pray you don’t miss all the wonder that first Christmas morning brought us.

Merry Christmas Morning. And in the words of Tiny Tim, “God bless us everyone.”