Thought for Today
Psalm 5:11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice; let them ever sing for joy. Spread your protection over them, so that those who love your name may exult in you.
Psalm 47:1 Clap your hands, all you peoples; shout to God with loud songs of joy.
Luke 2:10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:
John 15:11 I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
Today is the eve of Christmas Eve. I believe today is the most optimum day for each and every one of us to perform a joy self-analysis. How much joy are you feeling right now? Tomorrow is Christmas Eve. The day after is Christmas Day. Certainly you are not distracted today by the fact that there are still presents to buy or wrap. Certainly you are not disturbed by the fact that the Christmas Day menu is not yet determined, much less already prepared. Certainly today will not involve a panicked trip to a department store or a grocery store.
It has been several years since the birth of our first child. Several! Yet, dim though my memory may now be, I seem to remember more tension, fear and trepidation on the day before the day of our child’s birth than joy. The joy came after the birth and during all the years since the birth. How much joy do you think Mary was experiencing riding a donkey on a dirt road at the end of her third trimester?
If you are hosting the Christmas or Christmas Eve gathering of friends and/or family, is the house a mess? Does your home look like a herd of wild animals just thundered through? Think for a minute where God chose to enter into our world, a stable. Is the kitchen, breakfast room and/or dining room a mess? Think for a minute where the infant Jesus was first laid, “Luke 2:7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
The palace of Caesar was no doubt neat, clean and orderly. It was assuredly ornate and beautiful. The residence of the High Priest, although surely less palatial than Caesar’s, was certainly grand and glorious. Mary’s son, the child “Matthew 1:20 from the Holy Spirit” was laid in a common, ordinary feeding trough. Do you believe all of those animals in the stable had spent the night cleaning and polishing their feeding trough to receive the Son of God?
Yet, we are merely human. I cannot imagine that anyone would be okay with a messy, dirty, disheveled home to host a Christmas gathering. We have spent time on Christmas morning (after coffee) organizing the unwrapped presents around the tree. We have dispersed the fog and mist of shredded wrapping paper hanging above the floor and even taken out the overstuffed trash bags. We have set (and repeatedly reset) the table in preparation for Christmas dinner.
In all of this, however, there is the danger of losing the sense of joy which should imbue this season. Irrespective of her discomfort on the journey, irrespective of the travails of the birth, Mary must have felt immense joy at the fruition of what had been foretold by the angel. Ditto for Joseph.
I suspect that those shepherds “Luke 2:8 living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night” were puzzled/startled/terrified “Luke 2:9 an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them.” Luke only mentions terror, but that seems far too calm and simple. I cannot imagine those shepherds felt much joy until they themselves entered that stable.
Picture those wise men from the East. They had traveled far, arrived in a foreign land. They met with the local leader and were welcomed. They also could sense the danger when they asked for directions. What do you think was on their minds and in their hearts when the star they were following stopped over a stable? Were they puzzled, startled or discouraged? Their joy too came when they entered the stable and saw the child, “wrapped . . . in bands of cloth, and laid . . . in a manger.”
Somehow, sometime, somewhere in all of the hustle-bustle of all of this, take a break, enter into that stable mentally and spiritually, and feel the joy. Realize that God came into Creation as a babe, swaddled and laid in a simple manger. God truly came among us as one of us. That is a joyous confirmation of God’s love.
Stay safe, enter the stable, trust God,
Pastor Ray