Tag: Seeking Jesus

While Janet takes a break from blog writing for the holidays, we hope you will enjoy an excerpt from her latest Advent devotional over the next few weeks. If you haven’t yet ordered your copy of Waiting for Christmas, we still have a few copies available. Order your copy here.

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Yearning to be One with God and with One Another

Entry from December 10

Christmas movies often show large families gathering to spend the Christmas Day celebration together. There is always plenty of food that is spread out for all to feast on, gifts that are opened with excitement and gratitude, and plenty of smiles and joy for the day.

Christmas movies don’t usually reflect the actual realities of Christmas. Someone had to shop for, pay for, haul home, put away, and eventually cook up all those groceries to make the meal. Some gifts are winners and others are not. Fairly often there are family members who have to put forth great effort to travel somewhere for Christmas. Every year the evening news shows families stranded on the road because of bad weather or having to spend part of their Christmas holiday waiting in an airport. There is someone who is really tired from all that time in the kitchen. There is someone who is cranky after a rough trip. And there is that someone in the crowd who tends to bring up politics, past mistakes, or something else that brings a cloud to the room. It isn’t always joy and fa-la-la.

Every now and then we experience a “Hallmark Christmas,” but most of our holidays have a bit of comedy and/or drama. That just means it’s an authentic Christmas, with real people, and a real family. As the saying goes, “Life is messy.” It always has been.

When you look at the list of characters in the Christmas story, you see normal people, living their normal lives, who were joined together by God through extraordinary experiences.

• Joseph and Mary made a very difficult trip to Bethlehem.
• Mary gave birth in a stable because there was no room in the inn.
• The shepherds were busy all day, every day, tending their sheep.
• Every pilgrim to Bethlehem had meals to prepare and chores to complete.
• And poor Mary had a sleepless newborn baby to feed, clothe, and keep warm.

Then the heavens were filled with God’s glory. The angels spoke and the Messiah was announced. The shepherds laid their daily chores aside so they could go see the baby the angels had announced. Mary and Joseph might have been awakened or at least interrupted by the shepherds’ arrival. Many of the people in Bethlehem missed the Christmas miracles because they were trying to get in line, take care of the census, and just get back home.

The Christmas holiday is almost always a gathering of people with different ideas, agendas, priorities, and personalities. The unity and the joy of the holiday are witnessed as all these different people come together to celebrate the one baby King they all worship.

Some will wait all month for the celebration on December 25, and the day may disappoint. Some will miss the joy of Christmas because of earthly realities. Our job as Christians should be to follow the shepherds’ lead and take the time to pursue Jesus each day until we find him. Other things in this busy holiday season matter, but seeking Jesus will always matter most.