2 days until Christmas and this year has already been drastically different. I had our usual plans all laid out to my husband’s dismay….you all know the meme that says every, “buddy the elf is married to the scrooge”…Well,  I’m buddy the elf. 

This is the week for all our Christmas baking, deep cleaning the house to host Christmas Eve, watching all the Christmas movies and the perfect “Hallmark” Christmas family time but the one thing I did not plan was sickness. Yep, it looks like a Flu Christmas for this family. 

 My mind is cluttered by the countless Facebook posts about, “slow business due to lack of workers, bad customer service, rude people, stores with bare shelves, businesses that have gone downhill, packages that won’t arrive on time”, whine, whine, whine, whine, whine. 

So now I’m left in my thoughts as my body aches. I wonder how Mary’s body ached on the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem…90 miles while 9 months pregnant on a donkey…carrying their own provisions…potentially in the rain or blazing sun. I wonder how scared she must have been. I’m sure she heard everyone’s political opinions and grumbles as they made their way to the census. Was she nervous about the thought of childbirth…heck, I know I was and I already made my mind up I was taking an epidural! Did she truly understand what would take place in a short 33 years? The pain she would feel seeing her son tortured?

And what about Joseph? How does he even begin to measure up? He can’t even provide for his betrothed a room to rest her head. I wonder if he worries about what everyone thinks? Sure, Gabriel appeared to him in a dream but not to everyone else. Joseph was obviously a righteous man but now to those who know him best he appears to not be so righteous. Not everyone is as merciful as Joseph. Before Gabriel appeared to him in a dream, he was going to divorce Mary quietly as to not put her to shame (Matthew 1:19).

Wait, what?! The woman who was his betrothed  is now with child and he knows he is not the father and yet he does not want to put her to shame? Old Testament law says she should be stoned in the streets. Nowadays, it takes a lot less for people to publicly shame others all over Facebook. Could you imagine the town gossip?

As I’m writing this I’m watching my 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son play in front of the Christmas tree. My eyes filled with tears as my mind thinks of the parent’s all over Herod’s kingdom as their sons 2 years of age and under were ripped from them and killed. My son would have been one of those males.

And yet here we are, thinking Christmas is “over” because that special toy is sold out or lost in the mail. I know I am personally disappointed we will not be gathering in person with our church and hosting our family Christmas Eve but that will not stop our Christmas. It will not steal our joy because we were given the greatest gift the night the word became flesh. The night a poor, humble king entered the world and was laid in a trough where cattle eat. 

In just a short 33 years later, that little baby born of a virgin would give us the greatest gift…Grace and mercy that are beyond imaginable.

O come let us adore Him, JESUS, the greatest gift!