The Inconvenience of Christmas
As a society, we love Christmas. The lights, the decorations, the joy, the merriment, family and friends. We have expectations of a perfect day. But many times Christmas can be plagued with sorrow, suffering, stress, and overall inconvenience. If that's you, you're in good company.
The first Christmas was full of inconvenience. It started with a God who had been silent for 400 years that came to a young girl, no older than 15 or 16 years old, and asked her to do the unimaginable. Being pregnant outside of wedlock, even more so in that time, would have ostracized her from her community and subjected her to constant judgment. We don't know how her parents reacted, but we do know she spent a few months with an out of town cousin, perhaps revealing she was sent away due to her condition.
Once she was far along in her pregnancy, she wasn't even able to stay with family. She had to travel 90 miles, probably a week's journey on a donkey over rough and dangerous terrain, with a man she probably barely knew despite being promised in marriage. Once arrived in Bethlehem, she was put in a cave to have her child. No experienced mother to help her through the experience, no knowledgeable midwife to help guide her; just a man and farm animals. Even after a successful birth, they had to flee their home country to save their baby's life, fleeing away from a promised land to a land that once held their people in slavery.
We don't know much about Mary's reaction to all this, but Luke 2:19 does reveal, "She treasured all these things in her heart and pondered them." Treasure and Ponder: two revealing verbs. We treasure things that are special, that we know will have a lasting impact and meaning in our lives. We ponder things that don't sit right with us, problems we don't know how to solve, things that will take time to process. While Mary knew all these steps in the process were meaningful, it wasn't easy to accept and took a lot of processing on her part.
We can be encouraged by Mary's response.
When a God who has been silent or seemingly distant shows up with a hard request, treasure that request and ponder the significance that God is allowing you to play in His plan.
When you are ostracized, judged, or criticized for following God's plan, treasure His calling and ponder His setting you apart.
When you are moved, either physically or just from stages in life, treasure the new opportunities and ponder what God might be moving you away from or towards.
When you are put outside of our comfort zone with no earthly guidance, treasure God's leading and ponder the lessons He has for you.
God could have chosen someone older, with more life experience. He could have chosen someone already in Bethlehem. He could have provided a room or protection from the jealous King Herod, but He didn't. Why?
Elisabeth Elliot shares her insight that I invite you to treasure and ponder: "Our vision is so limited we can hardly imagine a love that does not show itself in protection from suffering. The love of God is of a different nature altogether. It does not hate tragedy. It never denies reality. It stands in the very teeth of suffering. The love of God did not protect His own Son. The cross was the proof of His love- that He gave that Son, that He let Him go to Calvary's cross, though "legions of angels" might have rescued Him. He will not necessarily protect us- not from anything it takes to make us like His Son. A lot of hammering and chiseling and purifying by fire will have to go into the process."
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