Today is Christmas Eve! My life is pretty chaotic during the week of Christmas. A whole lot of church and a whole lot of people to see. And oh the secrets! "Don't go in the closet!" "No, the other closet!" "Don't come out of your room for a minute," and, "I don't think you want to buy that right now." It gets a little confusing all the don't's and also keeping track of who gets what and what rooms they can and cannot go into. It's crazy all the lengths we go to in order to surprise someone for one day for about a couple hours. There's something about the element of surprise that drives us all to do crazy things and go to crazy lengths for that one day.
-- For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. -- Isaiah 9:6
This season can be totally crazy and viewed from a lot of different perspectives. There's the perspective of the getting gifts and giving gifts. There's the perspective of Christmas lists and trying to check it all off. Then, for some people, Christmas is just a major source of stress and jealousy. It's crazy what Christmas has turned in to. I can think of another occasion where Christmas was crazy: the very first Christmas. A virgin, about my age, was visited by an angel and through the Holy Spirit became pregnant. Now, that doesn't sound crazy; it sounds impossible. To Bethlehem they went with the virgin and and the Son of God. No one had room for the Savior so, to the stable they went. And there the greatest gift of all was born. The Son of God, the awaited Messiah came into this great big world small and humble. He had big plans to accomplish and so little time to do all he needed to do. He had a mark to leave and a name to live up to: Immanuel. He came into he world he created already knowing it's end. But He was sent into the world the exact same way I came into it: helpless and tiny, unable to anything for myself. Jesus came to us as a baby and grew up to be this perfect man knowing his fate.
The way Jesus came was highly unexpected, but his coming was highly expected. People had been waiting for centuries for a Savior and Messiah to come, and he did. But he didn't meet their expectations. The Savior of the world was born in a manger. He entered the world like all of us, but with a purpose unlike any of ours. He came to us low and humble. Little did they know He would become our LORD and Savior. Little did they know He was the awaited Messiah. I think He came the way he did to set an example, to show us we shouldn't let our expectations dictate what we believe. Just because His birth wasn't an elaborate event, doesn't mean it wasn't one of the most significant events in all of history.
As we know, God does all things for a purpose. He sent his son down to be in this world, He could've done it any way he wanted. God chose the lowliest of ways, in a virgin, in a stable, in a manger. Our Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace came into the world the same way I did. That's crazy. Jesus came to this world with a purpose and for a reason. I know God knew what people were expecting, so instead he sent what they weren't. A helpless Savior and a vulnerable Messiah. He did this to see if we'd still believe, and I do.
So often we focus on the way a gift comes and how it looks instead of the actual gift sometimes. Jesus came into this great big world in an impossible and unimaginable way. He didn't come to us like a King, but he is. He didn't come the way we all thought, but He did everything He was prophesied to do. God watched his only son grow up only to die- then come back, so that he could watch me and you all grow up with his son in us. Isn't that wonderful? This Christmas, let's add on another perspective, one that revolves around Jesus. One that has us look at Christmas the way God did so long ago. So, yes, this time of the year is prolly the craziest of them all. But let's go through this crazy time with Jesus as our perspective, and our reason for this season.
XOXO- Em
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