Delight. Joy. Mystery. Wonder. Awe. Amazement. Love. That`s what a baby’s birth is all about. Sometimes there are challenging circumstances that surround the baby`s birth. Sometimes there are medical concerns for baby or mother. Most often we can celebrate by welcoming the baby with love that overflows our hearts and joy that is indescribable.
Jesus` birth was more than that. He came as a gift to the whole wide world. Yes, his parents adored him and smiled the big smiles of new parents, in spite of his birth in a barn far from their home and prior to their marriage and having to flee as refugees to Egypt right after his birth. But then the shepherds came and the angels and the wise-ones – all to celebrate this precious little one. And the joy spread out from there to the whole world!
So why is it then that the wonder and delight of Jesus` birth gets lost in the preparation for Christmas? So often I hear people saying, “I don’t have the tree up yet.” or “I haven’t got to my Christmas shopping.” or “We have to go to his parents on Christmas Day and my parents on Boxing Day.” And it all sounds like rush, rush, rush and work, work, work.
The thing is that I like giving Christmas gifts. I like decorating my house. I like the extras that go along with the Advent-Christmas season. I don’t want to do away with it all. So here is my three-fold solution:
Dance, play, sing, hop, have fun!
Decide to do the things that really help you celebrate the birth of this amazing child from God, and let go of other things that you are doing just because you “should.”
Take time to pray, to read the Christmas story over and over again, and to worship.
Let me say more about dancing, singing, playing, hopping and having fun! It is not something we are really good at in our culture. We are so pragmatic, so focused on getting the job done, succeeding, accomplishing, adding to our skills and bank account. That gets added to our Christmas preparations. We tend it make it all into to-do lists rather than delightful preparations for the most amazing celebration of all.
Forget the perfectionism – cookies are just going to get eaten, and look at lot worse in the end, so if the tops aren’t perfectly iced – so what? Gift wrapping is going to be torn off the present, so if the corners aren’t perfect and the bow not placed correctly, so what?
My favourite two moments so far of this Christmas season are these:
my great niece Ava walked in the door to our family Christmas gathering and had the Disney Princess Party music playing and she and I started dancing together – freely, delightfully, with just a bit of crazy thrown in. Pure delight and joy!
the children at church offered their Christmas play this past Sunday. We had written out parts and practiced a bit. But when I looked over at the final scene, they were all gathered around the manger, peering in at the baby doll Jesus. Some were wandering away and then wandering back. One was dancing around. Pure joy and delight! That’s probably what the first Christmas really was like – not those perfectly lined up pictures we have with everyone in the right place.
So this week, as your spiritual practice, I invite you to grab someone near you and dance. I invite you to hop up and down with joy. I invite you to laugh in delight at the unexpected beauty of a moment. And I invite you to forget the “shoulds” and embrace the joy of the birth of Jesus, God’s Son, Emmanuel. Put the Merry in Christmas, if even for just a moment.
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