Christmas time is here again, and whatever our background or beliefs or financial status, we always make a huge big deal out of it, starting months ahead of the time, with millions of parties and presents and decorations and songs. We plan to spend a lot of money, see a lot of people, eat a lot of food, and hope and pray that all will go well in the home and on the job, so that this year we will have a good and memorable and merry Christmas.
All of us really do try hard to make sure that our hopes, and those of our children and families, are fulfilled on this greatest celebration of the year. Sometimes they are. Many times they are not. But most of us do all we can to try to make it work for us. Of course, whatever we plan for and expect, there are some things that will turn out to be vastly different from what we planned.
In thinking about this, it occurs to me that the first Christmas, whenever it was, was not as it was expected to be. I do believe that God above had planned it very carefully to be exactly what it was. But then, even as now, most of us don’t quite get what he was trying to show us.
He has a penchant for using the most unlikely instrument to convey the most unexpected message. Many times the priests and preachers and religious experts must step aside while God speaks through something or somebody that, if we were God, we would never choose. He will speak at a time and in a place and in a way that will often shock or surprise many of us. One thing I have learned is that God is unpredictable and uncontrollable. He cannot be bribed, manipulated, or pressured. He will do as he wills, and that is fine with me. (It will have to be!) As the Narnia stories say of Aslan- He is always “good”, but never “safe.”
When He reached out to communicate with us, to show us what he is really like and how he wants us to be, he didn’t send a book of instructions or a tape or a CD. Strange and incredible as it sounds, he came as a human baby. We expected him to come in strength and power, but he came in weakness. We expected him to come to a royal mansion or a great temple, but he came to a feeding trough in a horse barn.
When we expected him to give us answers, he asked us questions. We expected a great military leader, but we got a gentle and peaceful man. We expected a rich king, but we got a humble rabbi who taught us to serve. We expected him to look down on the sinful and the guilty, but he embraced them and accepted them as his friends. We expected him to be very strict, but we found him to be very forgiving.
We thought that he would wear a crown of jewels, but instead he wore a crown of thorns. We thought that he would be very angry, but instead we saw the tears he shed. We expected more rules, more requirements, and more religion. Instead we got grace.
On that first Christmas, we didn’t get a thing that we expected. But (to follow the divine pattern of using the most unlikely source) I will remind us that even the Rolling Stones told us, “you can’t always get what you want- but if you try sometimes- you just might find- you get what you need.”
I will admit it’s not exactly a Christmas song, but maybe it should be! On this Christmas, laugh and sing and dance and celebrate, and be very glad, because we got what we needed!
more good thoughts. Thanks, Debbie