Fighting for Christmas

 

I’ve had to fight for Christmas this year. 

Everything about this holiday season has been hard. Each day, it seems, brings a new disappointment. The fun of in-person shopping and gift selection? Gone. No days dedicated to wandering through shops searching for that perfect something. This year I’m scrolling instead of strolling. 

Half my decorations remain in their tubs. Why bother putting them all out if no one will see them? No cozy holiday parties. No drop in visits. No lingering over a warm mug of cider catching up with visiting friends. This year we’re zooming instead of rooming. 

Even the annual church Christmas caroling (six feet apart and masked) got rained on. Cold rain. Frigid temperatures. Miserable conditions. Really? 

And the special music for Sunday’s service? Cancelled due to a COVID-19 exposure. 

This morning, in an effort to push back the gloom, I lit a Christmas-tree-scented candle. I expected Balsam and Cedar to infuse my home with holiday cheer. Five minutes later, an acrid smell filled my nostrils. 

What in the world is wrong with that candle? I thought. It smells horrible. Do candles expire? It’s never smelled like that before. 

I followed the scent to its source—a brightly burning philodendron leaf dangling above my Yankee Candle. Mindful of the toddler’s extraordinarily long reach, I’d placed the candle away from the edge of the counter and a bit too close to the trailing philodendron. 

Did you know ivy is flammable and burning philodendron stinks? 

I wonder if Mary’s first Christmas seemed more like burning ivy than Balsam and Cedar? 

Certainly her year hadn’t gone as planned. 

She’d expected a wedding surrounded by her friends and family. Instead she got a rushed ceremony far from the eyes of gossiping townspeople. She anticipated a honeymoon year or two before she and Joseph began their family. Instead she got an unplanned pregnancy that no one, not even her fiancée, celebrated (except, perhaps, the angels in heaven). 

I’m sure she expected to spend the final days of her pregnancy in seclusion and preparation. Instead she dragged her burgeoning belly seventy miles over dusty roads to satisfy a government mandate. 

And then, the ivy caught fire—no room in the inn. No place to lay her contracting body down to rest. No midwife. No circle of comforting friends. No mother to hold her hand. Just a frightened husband and a stable full of stinky livestock. 

But instead of going up in flames, Mary’s first Christmas shone with a heavenly light. The babe the weary world had longed for slipped silently from her womb and into Joseph’s trembling hands. 

The sky burst open, and heaven rejoiced. 

“Behold,” the angel said, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). 

A Savior. 

Certainly not the announcement the shepherds expected. They’d settled down in the warm grass planning to doze among the sheep until morning. They anticipate a quiet night, followed by an equally quiet day, much like all the rest. An occasional coyote to chase off, perhaps, but nothing earth shattering. 

Then the sky exploded, and the world changed forever. Is it any wonder they left their sheep and raced into town? 

"Let us now go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us." 

I find it interesting that God didn’t give the shepherds an address to plug into their GPS. Just two clues. And not very good ones: “You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger” (Luke 2:12). 

God made them hunt for their Savior. I suspect they peered into every barn, stable, and cave in town. They nudged cattle away from their feeding troughs and rustled through hay bales. Wrapped in cloths. Lying in a manger. 

 “And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe” (Luke 2:16). 

This year I’ve found it harder to sift through the straw of our circumstances and find the Savior. Like the shepherds, I’ve expended effort and energy. I’ve searched for Him in unlikely places. 

I suspect you have, too. 

In the shadow of disappointment. 

In the uncertainty of unemployment. 

In the chaos of conflict. 

In the despair of heartbreak. 

In the misery of sickness. 

In the valley of death. 

Yet when we’ve looked, we’ve found Him. 

A Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 

Right where He said He would be. 

“You will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart,” God promised in Jeremiah 29:13. 

This Christmas, even if your holiday season smells more like burnt philodendron than Balsam and Cedar, I hope you’ll look for Jesus. 

And when you find Him, do what the shepherds did: 

“Then the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20).

 

 If you’re reading by email and can’t see the video, click here to watch For King and Country's, O Come O Come Immanuel. 

Christmas is fast approaching. Wouldn't you love to knock out a chunk of your Christmas shopping and impact your loved ones for eternity?

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*refresh a person's faith?

*encourage someone to explore the Bible? 

*inspire busy women to get to know God better?

*unlock uncommon verses and awaken interest in God's Word?

*jumpstart your quiet time?

*make a great companion to your 2021 devotional reading?

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