Perfect Holiday

Kajijis Girls,
How are your Christmas preparations coming along? Is everything just about all set? Your tree up and decorated? Your presents shopped for and wrapped? Your grocery list in order? Plans for your house to be thoroughly cleaned? No, me neither. :-) If nothing else, we’ve imagined everything to be pretty, festive, joyful and perfect, right? I imagine that Mary also had many hopes amidst her fears that things would go perfectly for her son’s birth. Philip Yancey compares the possible scenarios between John the Baptist’s birth and Jesus’ birth:

“…the birth of John the Baptist took place amid great fanfare, complete with midwives, doting relatives, and the traditional village chorus celebrating the birth of a Jewish male. Six months later, Jesus was born far from home, with no midwife, extended family, or village chorus present.”

Knowing something of the environment where Christ was born, we could assume the typical fanfare of the arrival of a baby would have been extravagant compared to the circumstances and company with which Mary and Joseph found themselves. The stable animals would have lent their body heat as well as their feeding trough but no jubilant songs or deep praises. Can you just picture the visions Mary had of herself giving birth to a King, the Messiah, the Savior of her people? Don’t you think that maybe, just for a moment, Mary thought the birth of her Christ-child would be a little bit more perfect?

Let us cast off our visions of a perfect holiday and instead open our minds and hearts to the plans God would have for us on this, His birthday. Perfect, in our world, means stress, worry, and frustration – an unattainable goal. Perfect, in God’s world, means peace, joy and unconditional love – completely possible with Him. Perfect is quite simply a babe in a manger and nothing else.

The Child we seek
doesn’t need our gold.
On love, on love alone
he will build his kingdom.
His pierced hand will hold no scepter,
his haloed head will wear no crown;
his might will not be built
on your toil.
Swifter than lightning
he will soon walk among us.
He will bring us new life
and receive our death,
and the keys to his city
belong to the poor.
~Gian Carlo Menotti

How do we celebrate Christmas as a bona fide birthday party for Christ? What gifts do we actually give to the Christ-child? Please come with your ideas, whether you’ve tried them or not. Hope to see you this Friday around 10am – please RSVP if you can come. Thanks!

Blessings,
Crystal