Day Twenty Five - Christmas Day

I recently asked a 94 year old what she typically received for Christmas as a child. She answered, “a woman’s stocking, with a few nuts in the foot, an orange, a shiny penny, a hanky, a couple of sweets, and maybe a book and some pencils”.

Wow. I considered the idea of giving my four year old a woman’s stocking hiding a couple of nuts and an orange as her Christmas present - she would not be thrilled to say the least!

Christmas today, as most know it, is different to what it once was …

Today, many view Christmas as the day to give gifts (not a bad thing), a time to feast on good food (not a bad thing), a moment to be with family (again, not a bad thing).

But the true Christmas story is deeper, and it isn’t sparkly at all. The Christian story starts in the most unglamorous, most humble of ways - starting with the birth of Jesus among farm animals, for His eventual brutal death 33 years later. No fairy lights, feasting and cosy Christmas jumpers here!

Jesus, the King of Kings, came to meet humanity in the most vulnerable and lowly form - as a baby - from a very unassuming family, in a far from significant town.

No other religion today has a God who not just appeared human, but truly lived from birth to death. A God who came not just to teach, but to personally heal, redeem and restore creation. No other religion has a God who came down to meet us, so we don’t have to spend our lives scrambling, trying every good work to get up to Him. No other religion has a God who came on such lowly terms.

God identifies with human vulnerability. God meets us not from above but from within our human experience. He gets humanity.

Jesus’ unfavourable financial, social, emotional and physical circumstances surrounding His birth were not coincidental. God had, and has, a message for us. This is the message - Jesus came for those of us who feel ordinary, for those of us who feel like we have no place to go, for those of us feeling surrounded by metaphorical pigs, for those of us, like Mary, wondering how the future is going to work out, for those of us with little in social or financial standing. In all of this ordinary, very human mess of ours - there is HOPE. There is Jesus. This is the real heart of Christmas.

So today, do pop a cracker! Enjoy all the “trimmings” of Christmas if you’re privileged enough to. Celebrate the most precious gift that was given for our ultimate victory… just don’t forsake the humble heart of Christmas. Don’t feel you’re too messy to be reached, or perhaps the opposite - you’ve placed yourself “too high” to get low. Remember, Jesus didn’t just reach down, He CAME down to the depths of humanity for us. He really is ‘Immanuel – God with us’ (Matthew 1:23).