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Messy Christmas
Scripture focus: Matthew 1-2; Luke 1-2
Have you ever looked at the world around you through rose-colored glasses? Seen the shimmer and shine all around and the dark and dirty spots disappear? Most of my childhood was spent like this. And there are many reasons why I’m so grateful that I did get to see the world this way for so long. I was safe. Protected. Because I remember the exact moment the glasses came off. I remember when my eyes faced darkness and uncertainty. I remember when I got my first sight of evil at work. I remember the mess and the chaos and the destruction that this world can hold. And as my adult life continued on, the image of the rose-colored world became more and more out of focus.
I wonder if this is what Mary felt sometimes. Did she grow up with rose-colored glasses? Here she was all of 16, a young virgin pledged to be married to a common man living in the town of Galilee. Everything was going according to the plan set before her. In the book of Luke when the angel appears to Mary she became greatly troubled. The Angel continued and Mary’s reaction turned into questioning. Wondering. Doubting how this news was even possible. With one more response from the Angel, concluding in verse 37, “for no word from God will ever fail,” Mary surrendered to the new reality she would be faced with.
On her journey to give birth, I think that’s when the rose-colored glasses shattered from her. Because the world she traveled was indeed quite messy. Rulers and authorities were making demands. Towns were overcrowded and many doors were shut in their faces. How lonely that night must have felt. Here she is, her hour of desperate need and there was dark, messy, chaos. But it did not stay that way. LIGHT entered in. PEACE enveloped her. When she stared into the eyes of her son, PURE GOODNESS was restored. For this baby, well, He was the promised one - for her and for the world.
I’ve stopped looking for roses. You don’t have to look far to see shattered hearts and division, broken relationships and injustice. But God didn’t wait back then for the world to be perfect to send His Son. He moved right on in. And He doesn’t wait now for our world to be cleaned up. LIGHT enters in. PEACE envelops us. PURE GOODNESS is here. The light is what I look for now. The light holds the promise that one day in the here and the not yet, everything will be set right.
This holiday season my prayer is that whatever chaos swirls around you, however it may be that your rose-colored glasses came falling down and shattered, that your eyes would look for the light. That your heart would search for peace. John 16:33 says “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” And when God brings you this peace, breathe in the pure goodness that surrounds us just as Christmas lights surround the tree.
Lord Jesus, we come to you as we are. Some of us may be shattered, seeing the broken mess that is our world. Some of us may be delighting in your peace. Either way Lord, we come. On our knees before the Prince of Peace, to worship the one whose words will never fail. Amen.
Michelle Callis
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