Photo by Lisa Worley Photography |
Photo by Lisa Worley Photography |
And while that may work for actual picture taking, it doesn't work that way in life. I've noticed this time of year especially, there seems to be such pressure to have "it all together." We work ourselves into a tizzy trying to have just the right gift to give, wrapped perfectly, and a Christmas Tree that is perfectly centered with all the "holes" turned to the back. We plan menus that would feed armies and try to create this perfect Christmas experience in our homes. And after days and weeks of trying to have a perfectly orchestrated season, we exhaust ourselves. Or we may become so difficult to live with that by Christmas, relationships are strained and everyone is just ready for it all to be over!
How sad that this "picture perfect" Christmas has become our ideal of how Christmas should be. The truth of the matter is that the more we are focused on the "prettying" up of Christmas, the more we miss the whole point of Christmas. Christmas is about Jesus.
Luke 2:11-12 says, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."
I guarantee this was not at all the "picture perfect" day that Mary would have wanted. What mother wants to have her baby outside in a stable? But the setting didn't have to be perfect for the perfect baby to be born. And I imagine Mary and Joseph celebrated his birth anyway. And when the shepherds arrived they celebrated some more. Because it's not about the perfect tree, the perfect meal or the perfect setting and decorations-- Christmas is about the perfect Savior, Jesus Christ.
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