Twas The Night Before Christmas (in a Barn)
It’s 3 a.m. and it is POURING. Normally, I’d just roll over and go back to sleep, but tonight the rain is a problem. Later on this evening we have our Christmas in a Barn. , so all this rain means that mud is going to be a major issue. Where do we park? How do we get people to the barn? Wh? . . . what a MESS.
And, therein lies maybe the most important message of all at Christmas. It IS a mess. The world is a mess. Our lives are a mess. Christmas is anything but neat and tidy. The whole reasons Christmas happened in the first place is because Jesus was willing to let go of the comforts and neatness of heaven to enter into a world where things always eventually end up going wrong.
A small part of me might be envious tonight as we slosh through mud while others get to worship in the comforts of a more predictable church environment. But, the deeper side of me is glad. Glad for the rain, the mud, the hay bales we’ll be sitting on. thankful for the messy reminder of why we needed a Savior in the first place.