Advent Reflections 2024 - December 10

Messy Christmas

Scripture focus: Matthew 1-2; Luke 1-2

“I’m pregnant”

These words can bring great joy or great fear or both. These words always mean that lives are about to change. Sometimes for the better. Sometimes not so much. For a young woman in first century Judea who was engaged to be married to become pregnant, and not by your fiancé, was scandalous. Her marriage was not going to happen, and she could even lose her life. This could not be messier.

This was not the plan for Joseph and Mary. They were Jews who could trace their family trees back to King David. They were supposed to marry and have children after they were married. This was the law. This was God’s perfect plan for marriage and families.

But God had another plan. He revealed His plan to Joseph and Mary separately and they believed God. They obeyed God. But the situation got messier. They had to travel to Bethlehem for a Roman census. Their baby would not be born in their home. When the baby came, He was laid in a manger. He was surrounded by animals and shepherds. This was a pretty messy birthplace for a king.

For us who have a Christian view of Christmas we see it as more than a gift giving event but a family celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior. The reality is that we do not always have our families together at Christmas. Sometimes we are separated by miles. Sometimes we are separated by jobs. Sometimes we are separated by other families as our kids grow older. Sometimes we are separated by personal conflicts. Sometimes the ones we love do not share our belief that Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Sometimes our loved ones are in living situations that we would not have chosen for them. But Christmas comes every year, messy or not. It does not wait for our family situations to line up with our “perfect” vision of what Christmas should look like. It does not even wait for all our family to be present.

God did not wait until Mary and Joseph got home from the census. He did not wait until there was a “room at the inn”. He did not wait for the Magi from the east. Christmas came in Bethlehem, in a manger, surrounded by shepherds. And this was his plan even if it was not Mary and Joseph’s plan.

I don’t like to use the word messy to describe our families. But if you think that the opposite of messy is neat and clean with everybody where you want them doing what we think they should be doing then surely families can be messy sometimes.

We celebrate Christmas where we are, with whoever God has us with on whatever day we choose to celebrate. With our friends and families and sometimes strangers, we celebrate the love that God showed to messy people (and that includes all of us) by sending his Son into the world to live the whole messy human experience from birth in a manger to death on a cross for us to save us from our sins. We celebrate by sharing that love by eating together, exchanging presents or whatever family traditions we may have. Christmas comes, messy or not. Even when it’s messy it’s still beautiful.

Dave Morris