I remember looking out the window on dark December nights and wondering. I would watch a bright star twinkling high over the horizon and think, “Could that be the one? Is that the star that led to Jesus?”
(I also searched the skies for any sign of reindeer or a sleigh.)
As an adult, I can’t imagine having the patience to sit and look at anything during December. There are gifts to buy, places to go, and a house to clean. I better have my stuff together by December 24, or I have failed at the holidays.
Thank goodness it doesn’t have to end there.
While our modern culture tells us December 26 is the time to throw away the wrapping paper, head home, and resume our normal lives, old traditions reassure us we can linger just a bit more. For centuries of believers, Christmas has marked the beginning of a celebration, not the end.
We have a choice this week, a decision to dive back into the race to do more and be more, or a decision to be still.
We can listen to the voices that tell us we are not enough, or we can know we are part of a beautiful design.
We can believe our mistakes can’t be redeemed, or we can accept forgiveness.
We can search for comfort in substances or things, or we can stay in the pain and find the beauty beyond it.
Staying in the moment, in the week, can be tough. Slowing down means we see that things aren’t the way they ought to be. To celebrate the birth of Christ is to celebrate God coming to heal a world that was, and still is, broken. It’s to acknowledge that things have gone wrong and that we can’t fix them on our own.
This week, as we look around at our messy, complicated world, we see that Christmas is not an early-morning pile of presents, the smiles of surprised children, or even the gifts we give to one another. Christmas is one special, precious gift of grace that we each need day after day.
No matter your belief or unbelief, as you clean up from the feasts or return home from your travels, as you ponder the expectations unmet or the tears unseen, may the grace of Christmas stay with you for the days to come.
