You and I both know that the Christmas season can be crazy. It's really easy to have a calendar page full of cheer-filled lunches, brunches, dinners, parties, gatherings, and outings. I enjoy this aspect of the season and gear up for the exhausting coordination that goes hand-in-hand with it. I bake the coffee cake on Tuesday for Thursday, make the pizza dough on Saturday for Wednesday, freeze the sausage balls this weekend for next, meet the farmer for fresh greens Friday for Christmas Eve's salad...and the to-do list goes on and the parties keep coming. Thankfully, I get along well with my immediate and extended families, so the occasions are a joy, albeit a bit numerous. Truly, I couldn't ask for better holidays.
Lately I've been grasping for the silent and holy aspects of the season. I realize that it's not politically correct but I'm not ashamed to put in print that I'm a Christian. Christmas may be a season of giving, a time of childlike awe and wonder, an occasion for charity and selflessness, but as far as I'm concerned it's not because Santa deems it so. Christmas is the celebration of Jesus' birth -- the greatest gift to mankind. It was commemorated by the luxurious offerings of the Magi and the breathless anticipation and rapturous jubilee of angels, shepherds, and all creation. It was a foreshadowing of the fulfillment of true love, ultimate sacrifice, and redemption made available for all.
THIS is Christmas. A reason to be both speechless and to exuberantly rejoice, to be silent and to reverence the reality of this momentous event. As difficult as it may be to wrap my mind around and as tear-filled as my eyes become, I intentionally contemplate the stillness of that divine night, the hushed expectancy of heaven and nature, and the bursting wonderment of all who witnessed that miracle. And a miracle it was. Not only the immaculate conception or the paternal dreams, the humble birth in a stable, the angels' celestial song, or the guiding light of a new star, but first and foremost because Emmanuel had come -- God was now with us in human form. The Creator had provided a way, the Way, for men to be called, drawn, and saved into relationship with Him as He intended. This night was the moment that the Living Promise finally come to earth. Joy to the World.
Modern Christmas is holly jolly and I'm okay with that to a degree, but the true reason for this season need not be displaced nor diminished under the jingle of sleighbells and Frosty's button nose. In the coming weeks before beckoning in the New Year, I wish that your days be Merry and Bright, and that your Christmas be overshadowed by the splendor of that Silent and Holy Night.
See you in 2013!
As always, a beautiful post, Ariana!
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