Tuesday, December 24, 2013

2013 Christmas Eve Meditation




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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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