joy & peace

 We see the Christmas story in a neat, polished picture: a serene young mother, Mary, with her doting husband by her side as they adore a peaceful new baby while the animals watch quietly; beautiful angels singing in the night sky to a group of shepherds who then bow around the manger; 3 kings decked out in all their splendor. We speak of peace on earth and depict the birth of Christ as a moment solely of peace and joy and all the happy feelings.

But the peace of Christmas isn't about a neat, polished story where everything is going perfectly. The young mother? She was far from home with only her new husband, expecting a baby that had most likely made her the subject of rumors since she first started showing. She had endured a trip of around 70 miles at the end of her very first pregnancy, not really knowing what to expect or when the baby would come. She got to a new city where she was given a place in a stable instead of a room, then gave birth to her first baby far from home in a dirty barn. I wonder if in that moment she felt like she was failing God--bringing His Son into the world with nowhere to lay Him besides a manger.

The guests who came to greet the new baby? A group of shepherds who would have come in smelling a whole lot like the sheep they'd been living in the fields with. That group was followed later by a group of men who brought gifts that I can only imagine would have left the young mother feeling incredibly uneasy. The gold and frankincense would have most likely been welcome gifts, but myrrh? That was regularly used to prepare dead bodies for burial.

The joy and peace of Christmas aren't about perfect circumstances. Instead, joy and peace are products of the King of all creation stepping down into this messy world--when He chose to set aside His glory and confine His power to the fragile frame of an infant; to grow up facing every temptation that is common to man and yet live a perfectly sinless life; then to allow sinful man to nail Him to a cross where He chose to give His life when He could have called down legions of the heavenly army to stand by as His guard.

But the baby born that night? Just a short 3 decades later as He faced the end of His mortal life, He stood before Pilate and said, "For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the cosmos: to demonstrate the power of truth. Everyone who seeks truth hears My voice." The baby placed in that manger came into the world He created with the sole purpose of dying, His life and body a sacrifice to redeem us. He stepped into our mess and chaos, our sin and rebellion, to offer us faith, hope, joy, and peace through Him. His life and death had one purpose--to reconcile us with the Father.