Home for Christmas

Christmas comes in a few hours.  The tree is lit and sparkling.  Our stockings are draped across the armchair.  The kids are on their way back to Emporia from their dad's upstate. The three of us will continue the celebration at Madi's house. 

And I'm so glad about it all despite that it looks nothing like a Currier & Ives yuletide painting. We can never have enough celebration or people who genuinely love us. 

Home.  Christmas.  Family.

This year has taught me that Christmas is so much more than we ever fully realize. This season of light and life is more than a day or a place or the names of people around the table.   It is more than that baby in a manger and the star shining overhead.

Christmas birthed the beginning of hope and grace for a long ago world that was already divided by war, greed, and self-interest.  That kid in the hay trough?  He was the original Christmas gift to us from a God we could not see nor touch.  The son was sent so that we could put hand to his hand, an ear to his voice, and step in with him on the dusty road. 

That kid did not stay a baby.  He grew.  That kid, Jesus, learned a trade and ate breakfast, and learned his lessons at temple.  He grew hot and tired in the heat of summer and knew cold, hunger, and thirst.  He listened, talked, fed, healed, and listened more before we touched his flesh with spikes to hang him. 

It was then that Jesus offered his greatest gift by hanging on rough hewn wood between two thieves.  He stayed there when he could have commanded an army of angels to release him.  That was his greatest gift – HOPE – dangling bloody and innocent between two petty criminals while the soldiers played craps for his clothes.

His second gift to us came later.  Jesus promised to send a helper – the Holy Spirit – because he knew we'd be bewildered by life, unsure, and orphaned.  Even 21st century us – all progressive and shiny and interwebbed.  He knew we would need him now, too.  So after God sent the baby and the baby grew and hung on a tree, the man-God rose again and gave us his spirit so that we could celebrate this Christmas all year round.  And have life and a hope when the darkness seemed to rise.

I don't understand this three-in-one God, his gift, or how a good God can be so silent when women are raped fetching water and children are sold as commodities of sex tourism.  I don't understand why people are lonely and children are hungry or afraid and lives take a turn for the worse.  I try, but I cannot wrap my brain around it. 

But despite my own litany of broken pieces,  I know he is and I believe he is good because I see – am a witness – to his goodness.  (Even my doubt seems to bear witness to him.)

A friend takes in a 17-year-old who has been abandoned by his mum…for months.  This kid maybe is a grifter or mini me con artist or he may be an orphan needing HOME.  And my friend – she is taking a chance and offering him one even though her circumstances are not picture perfect.  She could use your prayers. 

In Oklahoma, a 5-year-old asks Santa for hay to feed her grandparents' small herd of cows.  The grandparents are raising her and times are hard.  NPR ran the story and the compassion and wisdom in it all reveals a good God whispering hope to a weary world when a child forgoes self-interest and the media tells the story.  This family could use hay.

Peace has settled in unlikely places…and freedom.  Troops are coming home.  Fractured families are rebuilding and people are still humming hopeful songs in a season of light.  This imperfect world is made better – a little kinder – during this season.  And it has nothing to do with gifts bought, wrapped, and hidden.  It's the gifts of an extra tip to the barista, a thank you to a tired cashier, forgiveness among friends and family, and that donation you dropped in the red bucket today.  Anonymous.  Love in action.

And I wonder if Christmas is really for the kids or if it is for the adults who need to remember wonder and patience and the songs of peace on earth.

Merry Christmas.  Peace, real love, and good will towards all – wherever you find your home this year.