Getting ready for Christmas is a task much more difficult now that I’m 82 than it was when I was thirty.  However, if I look back to when I was thirty, I had three children, no money for gifts and barely enough to trudge into the bone chilling forest to chop down a tree. The holidays are often filled with trying to make everything Pinterest perfect.  We usually fall short.  We bake cookies, we hang Advent Calendars, we start new traditions, infuse some of the old and totally wear ourselves out.  Later in life, we think we have the freedom to make Christmas perfect, but we lack the energy and physical capacity to do so.  Within all the chaos of living, how can Christmas possibly be perfect?

Many years ago, in the little town of Bethlehem, people had arrived from all over the countryside to be numbered for the census.  The people were under Roman oppression.  Wars continued to wage around them.  Poverty was everywhere, yet they were required to make this trip. Folks were weary of the way their lives were going.  It was a time of chaos and confusion for them.  They longed for relief. It was exactly the right time for the Messiah to arrive.

When the couple from Nazareth finally arrived, after a long treacherous journey, the woman was about to give birth and there was no room for them.  The place where animals were kept became Mary’s delivery room.  It was smelly, uncomfortable and no place for the King of Kings to be born.  Still, it was the right moment, the perfect time, the place predicted by ancient prophets.  It was the quintessential Christmas, in spite of all the confusion. The promised Messiah was born in the lowliest of places, yet angels heralded His arrival with amazing songs unknown to mankind.

In many cases we’ve lost sight of what Christmas is.  We place pressure on ourselves to do what the world expects of us during this time.  We forget it’s not about giving gifts, making cookies, setting traditions or overindulgence.  It’s about a little baby who came to take away the sins of the world.  

They say that out of chaos comes order.  God knows all about that.  He created the world, the universe and everything in it, out of nothing but chaos. He did it in just six days. Imagine how much more He can accomplish today.    Order out of chaos – peace in confusion – that is the consummate Christmas . . . and it didn’t cost us anything.

Phillipians 4:6-7 (ESV) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”