Love Comes Anyway

We are probably not ready for Christmas. I bet there are at least one or two people on your Christmas list that you just have no idea what to get them, still. Or, you still have not been able to locate the exceedingly rare but high in demand toy for the child in your life. I asked around and I think this year it is a Frozen themed boom box of some sort. I’ve kept my eye out for one as I’ve gone through stores and I haven’t seen any, so there is a good chance they have become exceedingly rare at this point. For me it’s the men’s gift exchange at my extended family’s house. A 30 dollar gift for a man, but I know that the men in my family are anything but alike, and I will probably end up with a power tool or some sort of knife. The family is coming over for Christmas and the house isn’t quite ready yet. Between work, maybe school, maybe kids, you are lucky the tree is even up, but you need to vacuum and gosh those bathrooms. Yes, the days come closer and closer and we are just not ready for it yet.

I bet St. Joseph didn’t feel ready, either. He certainly wasn’t ready to hear that his fiancé was pregnant with a child he couldn’t account for. I bet he didn’t feel ready when the Angel told him in a dream to take care of the child as his own and take Mary into his home. And now Mary is eight months pregnant, and he has been inspired and in awe of the grace and patience with which she has handled the whole pregnancy. She is going to be such a great mother, he must have thought, but am I ready to be a Father. And to such a special son. There is a scene in the movie the Nativity that I often think about this time of year. Mary looks at Joseph and says, ‘I wander when we will know that he is not just another child, will it be when he looks at us in a different way, or will it be something he says or does.’ Whatever it is, will Joseph be ready for it? And now a census has been called and Joseph has to take his pregnant wife to Bethlehem. This is an eighty mile trip, four days on foot and probably longer for Mary’s sake. This journey would take them through Samaria, unkind territory for the Jews, through Jericho and Jerusalem and finally to the small town of Bethlehem. Could he possibly be ready for such a task? When they arrive in Bethlehem, they can find no place to stay, can you imagine how this must make Joseph feel, not being able to find a proper place for his family. And on top of this it is this very night that Mary will give birth to their son, among animals, with no proper bed. My guess would be no, Joseph probably never felt ready.

And we will probably never be ready, either. I am not talking about gifts and decorations anymore either. Are we ready to welcome the Christ child into our hearts? We have tried this advent to prepare a space, but as hard as we try our hearts are still places where fear dwells, fear about an uncertain future, fear about health, about relationships, about responsibilities, fear about money. There is fear and there is sin. Sin that keeps holding on, forcing our eyes back to ourselves instead of in charity to those around us, sin that leads us to hatred, hatred of our enemies, maybe even hatred of ourselves. Pain, pain from all of this fear and hatred, or the loss of someone we love, or pain from broken dreams, or broken friendships, broken family. I don’t know what it may be for you, but all of these common enemies of hearts trying to be open to God make it hard to welcome him. Yes, there is fear, sin and hatred in our hearts but love comes anyway!

Love comes anyway into our broken world. Love comes to us in the form of a little child, born to Mary and unprepared Joseph, worshiped by Kings, and Shepherds and angels. Love that has existed from all eternity, poured forth from the Father into his Word and shared with the Holy Spirit, now shared with us, made flesh in our midst. Love is born into our unprepared hearts, because the love of God is the only thing that will heal them. So love is born in the midst of our fears, born In the midst of our hatred and pain, because the love born this Christmas morning can wipe them away if we let him. And if we can’t let him, this child of Mercy will dwell there anyway.

In the midst of the egg nog, and family parties, work parties, cleaning, cleaning up, frozen boom boxes, and last minute shopping, take some time this Christmas to reflect on this Child, the manifestation of God the Father’s great love for us in the form of such innocent beauty. Make him the center of your celebration, the center of your heart, the center of your whole vision of our world. Hold the child of beauty and love in your arms and rock him, sing hymns and carols softly to him, adore him, he loves you so much that he came anyway.

 Merry Christmas.