A Christmas Meditation...

[Phil Hoover]

A Meditation for Christmas...Share

"I think we sometimes forget in spiritualizing the glory of Christmas that this Bethlehem story is one of sore backs, sore feet, labor pains, desperation, and inconvenience. It is the story of a soon-to-be husband's patient endurance, a harried innkeeper's considerate offer when there was no room or reservation, and an inexperienced girl having birth without necessary provisions (and without her mother around.)...And lest we get too romantic about the whole scenario, it was not the frightened mother who heard the confirming angels, but some nomadic flock-followers who had no idea what the commotion was all about. It was not the patient and worn-out Joseph who was inspired by the star to keep going, but some shy scholar who had no real tie to this most human development in Bethlehem...

Like the first Christmas, our Christmases have puzzle pieces as profound as shepherds, mangers, and the tax census. Only we usually don't know until the puzzle is finished; the details seem unrelated until the whole story is written. Pieced together, they make the mosaic of Christmas holy.

If those events in Nazareth and Bethlehem taught us anything, it must be that God came to blur the line between the mundane and the divine. He came to let us know that this great and awesome Jehovah intended from the beginning that our regular days be so filled with awe and wonder that we really couldn't bear any more miracles. Just the unspoiled trust of a young girl or the birth of a baby or the compassion and sensitivity of strangers are marvels enough! Maybe HE came to peel the glaze off our faded eyes so that we recognize a star-studded night when we see one, and can pick out the singing of angels from the lowing of oxen, the bleating of sheep, and the children arguing on the hillside....

May some of us this year see the star, know that this is no ordinary event, and bring to the party lavish, extravagant gifts of forgiveness, mercy, and grace that will sustain the ones who need to travel to a new heart place where hateful pursuers cannot harm the spirit.

May the sky explode above all our heads with unstoppable music that cannot be stifled by wars, taxes, or dull routine. Glory in the Highest, indeed!"

Taken from HE STARTED THE WHOLE WORLD SINGING: A Treasury of Gaither Christmas Songs, Reflections, and Holiday Traditions by Gloria Gaither, (New York: Time Warner Book Group, 2004).