I've had several blue Christmases. Holidays where I am grieving, or angry, or clinically, chemically depressed. The holiday happy-s don't exist in my emotional reservoir. That is when I am allowed to rest in the fact that joy is not a synonym of happiness.
Whether we admit it or not, humans are, by nature communal. We need others to flourish. We depend on relationships for our health, physical and emotional. By showing up as a baby, God is affirming our interdependence. Jesus as God needed others to survive. And he humbled himself to allow this vulnerability to take place. For needs to be met. For love to be embodied in the form of diapers and blankets and swaddling clothes.
Relationships come with strings attached. They are built over a rhythm of scheduled get-togethers and shared memories, but are strengthened by the surprise interactions. The drop everything and show up times. The hospital visits, the meals cooked and left on doorsteps. The can you come-over-I-need-you-now calls. In order to be good at relationships, you have to allow yourself to be interruptible.
Love chooses relationship, believes that inconvenience and judgement are able to be overcome. Love makes a cradle out of hay, and marvels at the sweet smell instead of mourning the lack of the coordinated nursery décor. Love allows strangers to come witness a private moment, it opens the door to the unexpected and the unplanned.
Love shows itself most fully when things are not easy. When the stomach butterflies and all night conversations have passed, and the everyday reality of work and washing dishes and wearing the same t-shirt for 6 days and a row sets in.
In the Nativity story, there was a star. In the dead of night, a bright, new light. One that shone so brightly that people were convinced to interrupt their lives and follow it's path. The star. The heavens, lit with angels. The Light of the World, born as an infant. This was the continuation, the passed candle, of the spark lit in Eden. Passed through generations, by Moses, by Isaac, by Rahab, by David, by Ruth and the Prophets. Then, it inhabited the Christ Child. Now, the candle is passed to you.
I love Christmas Carols. Their lyrics are timeless and sometimes reveal profound truths. But I don't love all of them. Why in the world do we need that tearjerker Christmas Shoes Song? Mary, Did You Know is history's most egregious case of mansplaining. And then there is the Little Drummer Boy.
How married are you to your plan? How much deviation to your internal agenda for your day, your week, your life, do you allow? Does an unexpected detour in your path throw you into a tailspin? Do you carry room for the emergent needs of others to reroute your priorities?
We as humans were created in the image of God, but then, in turn, God created Godself back into our image. Jesus was born, fully human, and the world was forever changed.
My dearest, you are created in the image of God. You bear the Creator's thumbprint on your very soul. Your very existence has worthiness, for you bear God's reflection in a way that is yours alone. The world would be less without this facet of God's light. Simply by existing, you are helping to paint a more complete portrait of our Creator for humanity to see.
JoyPlusGrace 