There seems to be so much irony in the Christmas season. A season that should bring peace, joy and happiness often brings sadness, loneliness and guilt of what should have been, what isn't and what may never be.
Do you feel that the Christmas story paints us a great picture of this very special time of year? The artists rendering of this story usually shows us a cozy manger with sedate animals all snug in warm, clean straw. Isn't the reality so much different? A trip taken in the worst of circumstances.....a political redistricting forces a man and his very pregnant wife on a long journey aboard an ornery donkey. Of course, no reservations were made and the only accommodation was a dirty, putrid barn. As for sedate, the animals, I bet, were noisy and restless with the invasion of their space. Rats and bats.....I'm sure they were there too. Oh, I forgot to mention about a birth with no sanitation, running water or nurses. Could it get any worse? Possibly.
I know I don't like visitors when I am out of sorts. And who decides to visit but a bunch of smelly, surly shepherds. How long do you think it was until Mary remembered that she had told the angel, "May it be to me as you have said"? There sure didn't seem to be much "put-outness" in Mary's countenance. In fact, it was after the shepherds had left, "Mary treasured all of these things and pondered them in her heart".
When the special time of Christmas comes, our expectations blossom into cozy wonderment. But soon the wolves of deceit pee on our snow and the brightness becomes dingy. The heartaches of the past year become overwhelming. Our nice warm homes become drafty. Our jobs become boring and dissatisfying. Do we lose sight of the hope, the joy and the peace a small boy child has offered us? Can the uncertainty in our lives be treasured up in our hearts and be allowed to be worked and molded into something wonderful? Can we keep our hands out of the pot and "let it be to me as you have said"? Can this special season let us understand a little more about the Savior of the world?
Hope has come! Merry Christmas!
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