Have Yourself a Messy Little Christmas

It looks like a bit of a messy Christmas here.

Leena got sick Sunday and was fine on Monday, so we figured we were out of the woods. We would at last have a Christmas where no one was sick!

Except the Emperor came down with it. Which means it's possible that I haven't had it yet either...

My parents won't be able to make it due to a combination of our health, their health, and bad weather.

Lastly, we had been hoping that Leena would be making her First Communion at Christmas, and, for a variety of reasons, that won't be happening.

Messy. No "perfect" Christmas this year.

Makes me think of the first Christmas.

I have easily more than a dozen nativity scenes around my house and every single one of them show a sweetly smiling Mary on nice clean straw with Baby Jesus tucked just so into an adorable manger.

I've been thinking two things:

1. That would have been really messy. Have you ever been in a stable? Do you know what the straw on the floor is for? It's because the animals aren't house broken. And they were busy - the inn was full. When was the last time that stable had been mucked out?

Let's suppose you haven't spent a lot of time in a stable. That brings me to the second thing.

2. What would a modern equivalent be? My best guess is this: They had to take a bus - the kind you see in third world countries with all the people hanging out of it. It still took 3 days. They got there and there was no room. Someone finally let them sleep in the garage. If you've ever given birth, how would you feel about doing it the first time in an unheated garage without help? Very messy.

So if you could have it absolutely any way you wanted (like if you were, say, God) why would you make it so messy? Wouldn't you have gone the castle/hospital/jacuzzi route?

I think it's because our lives are so messy. He came to help us out of the mess and He couldn't do it without getting His hands dirty, at least not in a way we'd understand.

So He started here. It's like He's showing us that all the external stuff is irrelevant. Christmas isn't about having our messes cleaned up or papered over. It's about Jesus coming into our messy places to bring us joy! It's perfect!

Merry Christmas!