The Christmas season is in full force at our home now. Like most people, our lives become very busy at every holiday. Of course, ours revolve around the many activities and events of the church and the people of the church.  It makes things very busy…as most of you can relate!

As far as our “private” or family Christmas celebration, it usually begins with the Christmas Eve service.  We began years ago, “extending” our Christmas season past December 25^th usually until Epiphany. We continue to play Christmas music, talk about what the holiday means, and share fond memories and dream about the future as family.  We just don’t let the calendar stop our celebration.

Since the fall this year, we have been trying to do some much needed repairs, painting and small renovation to our home that has been put off for a very long time.  So, since August our entire home and life has been “out of joint” to quote the bard.

Boxes are piled everywhere around the house.  We have not had a functioning kitchen since October. Over half the house has floors stripped to the bare wood sub-floor.  I could go on and on, but you get the picture. At one point, we even talked about forgoing the usual trappings of Christmas because of the chaos we were trying to exist in every day. We just felt too overwhelmed to try to even think of decorating, buying gifts or even finding the Christmas CD’s.

Then one evening just after sundown, I walked out into the parking lot of North Kansas City hospital, heading for my car after a visit to a neighbor. The assortment of lights and decorations around caught my eye and I stood for a moment and took in the sights and sounds surrounding me on that cold hilltop.

Sirens were blaring from the highway.  Traffic was buzzing around the buildings at top speed.  I could hear voices from several sources around me…some loud, raucous…some very intent in conversation…some obviously arguing.  Helicopters raced across the sky over me to destinations unknown.  Machinery and trucks still on duty deafened me temporarily with their huge engines and back up alerts beeping.  Throngs of people pushed up and down the crowded sidewalks heading to and from their cars.  Most of their faces betrayed the anxiety that one feels when a loved one is in the hospital. Some just looked in a terrible hurry.

And there, above it all were the lights and decorations of Christmas, shining brightly above all the teeming humanity below them.  How contradictory it seemed to me, the emblems of the Prince of Peace would be thrown into the middle of such a chaotic scene.

Or is it?

It then became clear to me: this is exactly the kind of world into which Jesus was born.  It was not a neat, orderly and peaceful world that He found when he first opened his human eyes. It was filled with the same violence, noise, confusion and sorrow that we find in our current world. Jesus did not wait till the world was in perfect shape so that it could welcome him properly. He came to it when it was so lost and far from God, that it did not even recognize him.  He came, as scripture says, “in the fullness of time.” He came when we desperately needed him.

So with that thought in mind, we moved some of the piles of boxes around and made room for the Christmas tree.  Chacey managed to find most of the Christmas CD’s. Cindy even dug out some lights and put them on the mantel and found some rugs and sheets to cover part of the bare wood floor; we have put off trying to finish the painting for a few days.

So Christmas has come to our home. Not because the tree is up or the lights are on.  We decided to let the light of the Christ child shine in our imperfect hearts in this imperfect world.  It is an insidious message of our culture that says that we can’t be happy or fulfilled unless our lives are perfect. We decided to welcome the Christ of Christmas into our chaos just as He came on that first Christmas.

 In the midst of our chaos the lights of the season shine bright.  Our lives don’t have to be “perfect;” they just have to be open to receive the Christ of Bethlehem, the Son of David, the Son of Man.  He is the Prince of Peace and we only have to make room for Him and His Peace will bring rest to our harried existence.

May Emmanuel grant you all a blessed Christmas.