Thoughts on Christ (and his birth)

God with us...

Living among us...

Dwelling in us...

Wow... A reason to stop the world and celebrate!

To think that the Ruler, King, Creator of the entire universe would wrap himself in human skin and plant himself among the poorest people is pretty hard to grasp.

I love Christmas.

This year is definitely different though.

I've tried everything I know how to make things feel a little more like "the Season"... but, nothing seems to work. I was beginning to get a little alarmed that it is now merely days before Christmas, and it still feels like any other day.

Any other year, I would have fully immersed myself in Christmas by now, but not this year.

In an attempt to revive my thoughts of glad tidings and great joy, I have gone to extremes...

I keep cycling through the handful of Christmas songs on my computer.

The other night, I found a recipe for eggnog and made me a glass.

It was good, but it didn't do the trick.

Something about drinking eggnog while sitting perfectly still with sweat dripping down your brow isn't right.

All that to say that I'm really thankful for this Christmas.

For the first time in my entire 23 years of existence, I have been able to almost completely miss out on the commercialization of the birth of Christ.

Yeah... I still have a small tree (which mesmerizes me with its flashing fiberoptic lights), and I am still going to open a few gifts on Christmas morning from my family.

But, on the quiet nights alone that I've had over the last week that weren't packed with concerts, candlelight services and Christmas lights contests... I've been able to reflect on those simple words...

God. With. Us.

Thinking about what that truly means in every aspect of my life.

How different things are now... since that cold night that God stepped into a bucket of itchy hay in the Middle East.

I am overwhelmed when I think about the comfort and peace I have knowing that with any worry that comes to my mind, I know that God is with us. He is with me.

God became personal.

It wasn't a silent night at all. It was raw and real.

It was the reality that we live in such a broken world that even the One that came to redeem it was born into a society of oppression. In his first breath on earth, he was shoved into a shelter for animals.

God with us meant that rather than seeing oppression and sin and brokenness from the point of view of a wealthy king, feasting in his palace with other wealthy comrades... or reading and writing about all the problems there are in the world he created... or even throwing money or resources at our problems... He planted himself smack dab in the middle of them and experienced every last one.

There was nothing about him that looked like anything special. There was no reason for us to even give him a second glance.

He was the kind of guy that was cussed at and ridiculed around town. He knew all about sadness and suffering... first hand.

Like the kind of guy that we look down and avoid eye contact with when we're in the wrong part of town, we thought he was worthless.

But... all the crap that we do, but don't like to talk about because we're too prideful... he claimed it as his own. Yet even still, we failed to see any worth in this man. He was just a nuisance.

Eventually, they put a knife in his side and killed him because of all that crap that we really did.

We were given PEACE all because he took our punishment.

Those knife wounds were the very things that healed our screwed up lives!

Even still... like stupid animals, we try to do our own thing. We run the opposite way than we're supposed to. But, rather than punishing us, that man took it on himself.

If ever there was someone that was oppressed, it was him. However, he never complained about it. Even when they were killing him, he didn't demand his own rights. He was silent.

The very things that he came to free us from, oppression and judgment, were what took him in the end.

All of that for us.

~Isaiah 53 (paraphrase mine)

It wasn't a silent night. There weren't presents or candles or red sweaters with decorated trees on them done in puff paint.

It was simple.

Raw.

Real.

He had a purpose.

In order to free the most screwed up, messed up, broken of us... it couldn't be done with all the bells and whistles.

He became like us...

Knowing what it's like to go hungry...

... feel the stares of the people that thought they were better than him...

... be wrongly accused of something done in innocence...

... try to serve people, but get the shaft in the end...

... fight for the cause of justice, but in the end, get killed as a result of the lack there of.

Yeah... God. With. Us.

We're pretty lucky when you think of it like that.

Strip all the bells, tinsel, lights, music, gifts, family, friends, eggnog and cookies away. There is still an enormous reason to celebrate... wouldn't you say?