Right about now is when we start feeling the pressure. The endless to do lists filled with holiday happenings taunt us that we are never going to get it done. That we are never going to be enough.
Whether the tree goes up weeks ahead in its Christmas glory or the night before with a few handmade ornaments, it’s still Christmas.
Sometimes we forget what Christmas is. In a world of Pinterest-perfection and holiday-card smiles we’ve forgotten that Christmas isn’t a decoration just like salvation isn’t an ace in our pocket.
Christmas was a journey, a path to something unexpected.
But sometimes we forget. And we are so busy looking for the jolly that we forget that it all started before it began. Even as the first “Let there be…” formed on His lips, He knew.
In saying “let there be light” he was already saying “let there be a baby.”
He knew from the moment He started the hands of time that there wouldn’t be room in the inn and that there wouldn’t be room in our lives with all the tinsel and the cookies.
But still, He spoke into the vast expanse and set a world, a life, a death in motion.
And when you feel like you can’t get in the spirit, and get it all done and get everything pretty and perfect remember that the stable must not have smelled too good and the hay was probably scratchy.
Remember that there were miles walked and labor pains.
Remember that she was just a girl and he a young man, and this wasn’t how they expected their life together to begin.
But it was holy.
In the unfilled wish lists and the crooked tree. In the burned cookies and the party invitation that never came. In the empty bank account and the bag from the food bank. In the crowded store and the cards that were never sent.
In all of the Christmas holiday, God is there whispering: “Let there be light.”
