It’s easy to get caught up in the perfection and ideal of Christmas. Beautiful gifts wrapped under a tree, tables laden with delicious food. Christmas lights softly glimmering as backdrop to smiling faces. Happiness all around.
But the message of Christmas is not about perfection, about everything being just right. In fact that first Christmas was messy. So messy. No room in the Inn, a stable as a birthplace. Dirt, animals, all in a foreign town. Not what anyone imagines for the birth of their baby, let alone the birth of the son of God.
And that messiness is what makes Christmas perfect. Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, meets us where we are at. He is with us in all aspects of our lives – the good and the bad.
Christmas heralds more than salvation, the grand plan for earth’s redemption. It also heralds God being with us. Present in all the intricate details of our daily lives.
He is with us in the messy and the hard. He is with us in the joy and in the pain. He is with us in our work, our families, our health. Present in the highs and the lows of life. He is with us with our fears, our doubts, our hopes and our dreams.
He dwells with us, is present with us, whatever our day may bring.
This Christmas, embrace the promise “Emmanuel – God with us” in every aspect of your life. Big or small. Perfect or messy.
Emmanuel.
God with us.
Blue Skies & Lollipops 