Making room for a Savior

I suspect for many who make their way into a sanctuary, Christmas Eve will be celebrated as a family tradition, an occasion to sing some old favorites, and at least a story that everyone can understand: a woman, a man, a baby.

Understanding this baby story as one of a million stories of like kind is not wrong; but it begs the question of whether God is at work in our world; if God is at work in this child; if God even is.  Churches decorated to the nines and renaissance inspired Christmas cards can lead us down a sentimental lane, confusing this story with another Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel.....which risks us rejecting it all because it is unrealistic (and annoying).  Services which look and sound like every other Christmas Eve service risk complacency and a false belief that Christ is old news and completely disconnected from the 21st century.

Has the familiarity of the nativity scene led to our deafness to the angels' message, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ, the Lord."?  Have we forgotten that this story and this baby have cosmic significance?

There are years when I wish we would simply turn down the lights, play the music softly, listen to the story and in quiet awe consider the gift God has given. (with lots of candles....because a good friend insists that women are crazy about candles).  Sometimes there is just too much noise for me to embrace the enormity of grace in our midst and God's call through Jesus to live my life filled with the wholeness that God brings forth in me.

Every year the celebration of Christmas (in the traditional American way) in my home gets pared down.  My adult children believe that this is because I am getting older and can't be bothered with all that fuss, but I know that I want to eliminate the foo-foo and concentrate on the essential.  I want to be sure that there is room for this Savior in my house, in my life, in my family.  I pray you find room as well.