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When Rachel was pregnant with
Caleb, we may have documented every move that little boy made. We always knew about how big he was and what
was developing next. There was a ‘fruit
of the week’ chart that compared the size of the fetus to a fruit, so we knew
whether he was the size of an apple or a kiwi.
We waited and waited, filled with anticipation, until he arrived in the
world. It was a fascinating process.
This summer, we were pregnant
again. It was a little different. Every once in a while, I’d look at Rachel and
ask, ‘You’re pregnant, aren’t you?’ I
kept forgetting about this minor fact.
We were so caught up in work and Caleb and other facets of life that we
kept overlooking the fact that there would soon be another little life in our
midst. In my defense, it was a little easier
for me to forget that Rachel was pregnant, seeing as how my body wasn’t
constantly changing. When the delivery date
came, we weren’t even close to ready.
Honestly, the last 3.5 months have
continued to leave me feeling exhausted.
Life is busy, now, and there are two little lives in our midst. We collapse into bed at the end of the day
and wonder how we’ll manage when Rachel goes back to work. We haven’t put the Christmas tree up, and the
stockings aren’t hung by the fire with care, and I don’t think St. Nicholas is
going to pay a visit there. We went out
looking at Christmas lights last night, and our street is almost completely
devoid of lights. We’re all just worn
out.
But just like you can’t go in and ask
the doctor for a few more weeks until the baby comes (not that Rachel would
have agreed to that anyway), you can’t go to the calendar and ask for a few
more weeks until Christmas. It’s coming,
whether we are ready or not.
Thank God.
Imagine if Christmas waited until
we were ready. Imagine if we delayed the
arrival of Christmas until everything was decorated and the cards were all sent
and everything was baked and everything was at peace and on and on and on… we’d
have Christmas in July, just in time to begin preparing for the next one. It would be awful.
Imagine, too, if God had waited for
Christmas until humans were ready.
Imagine if God told the world that he would send a Savior once we had
cleaned up our act. A Savior would come
when we stopped killing one another and stopped mistreating each other and
figured out how to play fair and be nice to each other and do all those things
our parents told us to do when we were kids.
Imagine if God had told the world that a Savior would come when we
finally stopped sinning and earned a visit from God.
We’d still be waiting. We’d be waiting forever, and I don’t imagine
there would be much hope for Christmas to come anytime soon. As one bumper sticker read, When world peace finally arrives, imagine
how quiet it will be until the looting begins.
Fortunately, God didn’t wait for us
to get our act together. Into the midst
of our mess, into the midst of the chaos, Jesus Christ was born. God descended to earth and took on humanity
long before we were ready, long before we earned it. We never could have deserved this, but God
didn’t wait. God took the initiative,
and God reached down from heaven and took his place here on earth, a light that
shines in the darkness. God brought
peace and hope and light and joy and life into our world, a world filled with
darkness and chaos and violence and despair.
God came down because God didn’t want to wait for us to change the world—God
wanted to transform the world in which we live.
God wanted to change us, here and now, and redeem the world. God wanted to get to work on his project of
redemption.
God came before we were ready. God came before you were ready. Before you could even think to ask, God
knocked on the door of your heart and invited you into eternal and abundant
life, starting now.
I know you’re not ready. I know you don’t feel worthy. None of us are.
But God comes down into our mess
and delivers us through it. It’s not
about what we must do—it’s about what God has done. Your choice is whether or not you will accept
the invitation into eternal life and live transformed, loving your neighbor and
serving the world.
Christmas doesn’t wait until we’re
ready.
Thanks be to God for God’s amazing
grace that comes down to earth, a light shining in the darkness that shall
never be extinguished.
Let us pray
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