pat loughery

This is a hard time of the year. It’s hard seeing so much need in the world I live in, and yet so much overcommercialism and overspending. In my family, we’re excited about Kaileigh’s first Santa-aware Christmas; last year she had no clue what was happening. This year she runs to the door whenever there’s a knock or the doorbell is rung, in case Santa’s there. We’re kept from the temptation to overspend simply by having very little to spend, and no places for more debt to be carried. It’s pretty nice not to be worried about the finding perfect gift for so many people, and just trying to find something small and simple for fewer people. I think this is a grace that God has given us.

As I mentioned a few days ago, we have another family staying with us now. Somewhere between 2 and 4 people will be shaing our home for a while. It seems that more often that not, somebody’s hanging out in our home for a while. Sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it takes work. When it takes work, I go back and read Bonhoeffer’s Life Together, which I continue to believe should be required reading for people who call themselves Christians. It’ll never happen though. The Christmas story will be simple and inclusive this year.

I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the Luke 2 story, the majesty and the simplicity of it at the same time. The God whom John describes as He who spoke the world into existance enters human history in the form of a crying infant, vulnerable and fragile. How do the main actors in the story respond?

The shepherds see angels performing grand closing number at a Vegas show and we read Luke 2:19: ” Mary quietly treasured these things in her heart and thought about them often.”. Early in Jesus’ boyhood, he escapes the family caravan leaving Jerusalem and his parents, frantically searching, find him by tracking his cell phone’s GPS-enabled locator, and again we get a picture of Mary: Luke 2:51, NIV “But his mother treasured all these things in her heart.”

I pray that we continue to treasure the idea of a helpless, newborn, fragile Messiah in our hearts long past December 25.