We Need a Little Christmas

I know you can’t wait for Christmas this year. I don’t blame you. I don’t think it’s the gifts, visiting loved ones, or sugary treats. I don’t think it’s the music or the decorations. I suspect it’s that you just can’t wait for the chance to rest. 

It’s been a long and difficult couple of years, and I bet you just can’t wait to have the space and permission to slow down and rehearse the unforced rhythms of grace. 

As I was thinking about this, I couldn’t stop remembering the most popular Christmas hymn of all time.The story goes that in 1818 the curate of a parish in Orbendorf Austria , Joseph Moore, sent a poem he had written to a friend of his, Hans Gruber.He asked heir Gruber to write music for the poem for two solo voices and for guitar accompaniment, the organ being broken, he desperately wanted music for the Christmas Eve service.

What makes Silent Night the most popular Christmas hymn of all time?  I think it’s the way this particular song captures the almost magical experience of the first hours after childbirth.  If mother and baby are healthy, then there is this quiet, attentive, silence that envelops you.  I don’t know if you’ve experienced it, or remember it, but it’s incredibly powerful.  

Can I go out on a limb here?  I think that underneath your desire for Christmas is the longing for this kind of quiet, attentive, connection.  We actually crave these kinds of moments, especially after a something difficult.  Have you ever felt a hand on your shoulder in a moment of grief and suddenly felt safe… and seen?  Have you ever walked quietly with someone in a moment of need and felt that somehow just their being there lifted your spirits?  

That’s what I’m talking about.  

At Christmas we celebrate and long for the quiet, attentive, connection with God that we find in Jesus.  As we remember the scene with Mary, Joseph, and the manger, we’re invited to know God with us.  Immanuel.  We’re invited to come to Jesus, to love him, to know him, and to give ourselves in love and friendship to him.  

In my book, Wait With Me; Meeting God in Loneliness there’s a chapter on called Ponder.  In that chapter I invite us to reflect on the Christmas story through the perspective of Mary who is said to “ponder these things in her heart”.  

This practice is important because although we long for that sense of quiet connection, most of us, most of the time struggle to receive it.  And that’s because we live in a culture of distraction.  We’re easily distracted by our phones, by the sights, sounds, and smells of this season.  We look at a light show and say, “Wow was amazing…” but even our enthusiasm is a bit hollow.    But when we ponder something, when we take a moment, an interaction, an experience and ponder it… we’re transformed by the experience.  

This Christmas I invite you to ponder the story of Jesus.  Let the vision of the word becoming flesh sink into your mind and heart.  Don’t be distracted by the lists, presents, cousins, carols, and preparations, just… ponder the wonder and beauty of Jesus.  Let the holy, attentive, silence of this scene give your heart the connection you crave, and you just might find yourself renewed in the new year.