home for christmas

well i'm back at the homestead for a month. a month can be a long time. i hope this one is long.

Christmas time has always been one of my favorite times of year, if not my favorite. i love the way the decorations look and the beauty of new snow. i love the candles and the smells of christmas cookies and evergreen and the fire burning in the fire place. i like the excitement surrounding the day and the way everyone puts in some extra effort to get along. i like the music and giving gifts. but the thought occured to me that perhaps i like the christmas season so much because it is so distinctive from the rest of the year. it has so many of its own traditions and it's own unique excitement. I know it's not wonderful to everyone and it stresses a lot of people out, but I certainly enjoy the predictable change of christmas time.

then of course there is the far more important aspect of christmas- the reason for the season Himself- who we should always keep in focus, especially this time of year. I really like advent because it reminds us that we are not just waiting and preparing for Christmas morning when we remember how Jesus arrived as a baby but also we are waiting and preparing for when Christ comes again. Advent does a good job of putting the incarnation in context. The incarnation itself is rather mind-boggling. God, the supreme being of the universe, completely good and perfect, taking on the form of a man, even a baby. He obviously got to pick at what time and in what place he wanted to arrive- He chose in an over-crowded small city, in a stable amongst the livestock, to a girl who had gotten pregnant out of wedlock. He knew Jesus would grow up poor, and probably the object of some speculation if people in His small town of Nazareth knew about his bastard status. All of this I like to think about during advent. I like to think of how our God humbled himself to this extent so that He could show God's love to us. Christmas is not just about a star, some shepherds, and a manger. It's about God breaking through to us in human flesh so we could know him.

I always think it's cheesy when people say "Jesus is the best present you can get for Christmas" because really there would be no Christmas without him and kids don't really feel like Jesus is much of a present since you can't hold him in your hands or put him in the playstation. Still I do think the sentiment is right, that Jesus is the gift of God to an undeserving world. do we earn our Christmas presents from our parents? I know I never did. I'm pretty sure that even if I was bad they still would have gotten me something. God took it a lot further by dieing for us while we were still undeserving and offensive. There really is no point in Christmas without Good Friday, and no point having Good Friday without Easter. I appreciate the plan and process of it all. It started so long ago- it was the hope of Israel and because of God's goodness and generosity, it became the hope of the gentiles as well. so as we approach Christmas, I hope we can keep Christ in his rightful place at the center. It's always a challenge for me because the other good things are so distracting. Especially this year as I get ready to leave (I feel like I just got back!).

I have a feeling these next 4 weeks of nothing will be very busy. I always manage to make my empty schedule full. If nothing else, I will definitely enjoy friends and family and read some good books.