I think that we can all
relate to Clark Griswold in the movie "Griswold's Family Vacation." After
doing everything in his power to have his family experience a 'good old
fashioned family Christmas,' everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Relatives
bring unwanted and unruly pets into the home, the Christmas tree is set ablaze
by cat chewed Christmas tree lights, and a rouge squirrel in the replacement
tree causes a squirrel verses dog chase leaving the Griswold home almost
uninhabitable! Because of this, the relatives decide to throw in the towel on
this 'fun old fashioned Christmas.' Their giving up, prompts this (pastorally
edited) rant from Clark:
Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny (bleep) Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white (caboose) down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of (folks) this side of the nuthouse.
In the same way, we try and
try to capture this magical feeling with
some forced family fun and it never lives up to our expectations. However, are
these expectations the one's we ought to have? Is this what the very first
Christmas looked like? In the opening chapters of Luke, we find the story of
the first Christmas and it is not nearly as shiny, pristine, and perfect as our
expectations normally are.
A poor, unwed, teenager, becomes
very unexpectedly pregnant. Despite the social, religious, and legal rejection
that it carried, Mary and Joseph (with a little angelic help) decide to
continue their engagement and traverse the difficult road from Nazareth to
Bethlehem. Mary is very pregnant and all the homes very full. Mary is forced to
deliver Jesus, Love's pure light, in a dirty and smelly manger, where the
animals were kept. To say this was a messy and un-pristine way for God to come
to earth would be the understatement of the millennium!
There has only been one
person in the history of creation to be able to choose where He was born, Jesus
Christ! He did not choose to make his home for that first Christmas a perfect, pristine
and mess free family. Instead, He made His home among us in the dirty, gritty,
and very messy stuff of our lives. If any of us are experiencing a full blown,
four alarm, holiday emergency, take heart. The angel in Luke 2 reminds us all
that even in the messiness of Bethlehem, and our lives, the Lord gives us "good news that willcause great joy for all the people!" This is the news of the arrival of a
Savior that does not wait for us to have our lives all figured out. Instead, He
is a Savior who is our Emmanuel (God with us) in the midst of our messy,
chaotic, and sometimes unpredictable lives.
As we come home for
Christmas, let us consider the fact that Christmas is not our birthday, it is Jesus'
birthday. Let us consider how to honor Him by sacrificially giving to others
just as He sacrificially gave Himself so that we might have life and have it abundantly!
Many Christmas Blessings from
our family to yours!
Pastor Bill, Brittany and Billy
