HOPE IN THE HOT MESS

I am certain that the Christmas songs start earlier every year. And 2020 may put all previous years to shame. I began seeing posts about trees, Christmas lights and Christmas music popping up in late October by those longing for a sliver of joyous energy during a tedious and disappointing year. Yes, you read that correctly-- October. "Not even a little sorry..." said a friend's post of her beautifully trimmed tree... on October 24.

We are desperate for joy this year. For hope. For escape from the loss and the loneliness and uncertainty and cancelled plans. And the perfect shiny package of Christmas is just what we need to rescue us.

The lights that dress up the drab. Decorations to offer a spark of joy. Pretty packages. Sweets and treats and endless baking. SANTA and the wonder and awe of our "true believer" offspring. Elves on the Shelves and OMG-did-you-make-sure-to-have-yours-quarantine-this-year-and-wear-a-mask-and-it's-so-cute!!!!!!!!!

We've been sold a promise of perfection. Of happy, happy, HAPPY. Of stunning snowy landscapes with nary a footstep to mar them, let alone months of dirty runoff from cars that leave blackened piles in their wake. Of family unity and joy, but never of brokenness and hurt and loss. Of cherubic baby Jesuses and his angelic, radiant mother looking wise beyond her teenage years. Afterall-- "no crying he makes," so girlfriend was getting some amazing and unprecedented sleep for someone with a newborn and a complete lack of modern amenities.

Maybe if you try really hard, you can ride the euphoric wave of happy perfection for the whole season. You can block out the mess by cranking those tunes a little louder. You can insist to yourself that you will focus on PEACE and HOPE and JOY.

But the story of Christmas is not hopeful because it's perfect. The story is perfect because it's hopeful. It's a story that meets us where we are. In the middle of the mess. The HOPE of Christmas meets us in our loss and our sorrow. The hope of Christmas doesn't demand that we are honored or even honorable. We are invited-- angry, afraid, weary, stingy, and hopeless. The losers and the lost. The abusers and the abused.

Those invited into the very first Christmas were nobodies-- an unwed, pregnant teenager and her blue collar fiance. Manual laborers who worked with dirty, smelly livestock. An elderly couple who, until recently, had seemed cursed and forgotten by God. These, and everyone they knew and loved, were an occupied people living under the harsh hand of the Roman government. They sat in darkness and despair.

And the HOPE looked nothing like what they expected. A newborn baby who spent his time with other nobodies and who was eventually executed by the authorities. And yet, He changed everything. Instead of hope and salvation for the ruling classes or for the beautiful or the wealthy, He brought it for each of us. I am welcome. You are welcome. We may come in all our lowliness and our imperfection. We may come as we truly are. We don't have to bring anything to the table. We don't have to be religious enough. Or happy enough. We don't even have to believe. He still meets us where we are.

This Christmas, if you are in a hot mess, you are right where you are supposed to be. You are welcome. You are received. He is enough. And He will meet you where you are, even in the deepest of messes.

Claire Morris Clark

VERSES OF THE DAY

Matthew 1:18-21

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

QUESTION

Initially, it must have felt like a great loss of hope for Joseph to have his whole future change. Have you ever been disappointed something didn’t happen, only to see later how it was better? What do you think helped Joseph trust God in that moment?