Christmas thoughts.

Let's talk about Christmas. You probably guessed that was coming, right? I got an email from a store this morning that said " Only 3 days 'til Christmas!" WHAT? These past 23 days of December have really gotten away from me. When I was a kid, I looked forward to Christmas because of the presents. In my family, we put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving and the countdown to Christmas became real at that time. Now that I'm an adult, I look forward to Christmas time because it's a much-needed break from reality. We still put the tree up right after Thanksgiving, but I feel like I don't even recognize it's presence in our home the way I used to as a kid. I've been waiting this whole month for my last few finals to be over before I could really let myself feel any kind of Christmas spirit.
I've been listening to Christmas music today to help me out. Honestly, I am not a fan of most Christmas songs. Frosty, and Rudolph, and Jingle Bells, I'll pass on all of those. The Christmas songs I do enjoy are the ones that actually talk about the birth of Jesus. Go Tell It on the Mountain, Silent Night, Joy to the World, those mean so much more to me now than they ever did when I was singing them in children's choir. My favorite song, though, is Oh Come Emmanuel. Have you ever really listened to the lyrics of it? They're positively haunting.
 "Oh come, oh come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here, until the son of God appears. Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee, oh Israel."
Can you imagine living in the time of Jesus' birth? God had been silent for 400 years! The Jews had gone through times of pressure and had failed in their efforts to re-establish themselves, and had given up all hope. There was a growing air of expectancy that the only hope they had left was the coming, at last, of the promised Messiah. Can you imagine? Redemption began on His birthday. The hope for Israel, and the world, was born in a stable. God has such a sense of humor, don't you think? His people are expecting something grand, something big, something they could see immediately and say, "THIS IS IT." But instead he sends a baby, to poor people, in a poor country, in a poor world. A baby to save the world. Do you think Gabriel laughed when God told him of his plans to send a baby? Do you think Jesus was cute? Do you think he cried? Do you think, even as a baby, that he felt the weight of the world on his shoulders? All questions I would like to ask someday. But for now, all I can do is marvel at the brilliant work of the God of the universe and his magnificent, creative, glorious, all-knowing plan to save a lousy sinner like me. Merry Christmas, everyone.