So This is Christmas

It's Christmas Eve and the day has shaped up to be very different then years past. There is only 3 of us at home, there is Chinese food on the coffee table and we're watching old Christmas movies. It's an odd scene for my mind to grasp. I cannot remember if there was ever a time where I was sitting in an empty house on Christmas Eve. For as long as I can remember this night has been spent at my Grandma's - church services, playing games, eating delicious meals and opening gifts. That will still all happen tomorrow, but today is just a different sort of day.
As I was sitting in church this evening, listening to a very familiar Christmas hymn, "O Holy Night", I had an epiphany sort of moment. This whole month of December I thought that I was very much ready for the birth of Christ. I thought my heart was prepared and that I was entering this Christmas season with all of the right intentions - and maybe I was. But as we were singing those familiar lyrics it dawned on me that I hadn't prepared my heart. Not really. Only now, when I am essentially left with not much of a Christmas, it is sinking in that I have made this Christmas season about the "stuff" and the traditions. Don't get me wrong, I think that those things are wonderful and make Christmas enjoyable, but I once again lost sight of that Holy Night. The day Jesus came to this earth, he was not born into an extravagant setting of Christmas trees, decorations, presents, etc. Instead he came in the simplest way possible. He was born in a manger, a grungy old stable with what I can imagine to be an awful smelling and noisy place. It was the exact opposite of what a King was expected to be born into. I've always liked that aspect of Jesus' story - he liked to stir up the pot and do the unexpected.

This Christmas I have experienced the unexpected. My pot has been stirred. Our plans of being in a paradise on earth have changed. So here I sit, on Christmas Eve, no Christmas tree or decorations to be had of, no presents under the tree. What I do have is my family - all healthy and well, friends who love me and I love them, a warm house, food to eat. I am blessed far beyond what I deserve. I feel kinda silly for feeling so sad and upset about not being on a beach in Hawaii this Christmas, but I get a very neat gift this year - I am learning what experiencing Christmas in a simple way looks and feels like and even my simple idea of Christmas is much more then so many other people in this world can imagine. I get the privilege of being able to experience the presence of Jesus with little distraction and that is a pretty neat gift. So tonight I am not going to set up the tree. Instead, I am going to spend some time reflecting with Jesus on this past year, the year ahead and the coming of Christ's birth. Maybe it's a little late to prepare my heart for the birth of Christ, but better late then never, I always say. So THIS is Christmas - in its most simplest way.

Merry Christmas!