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In the Quiet
By Scott Harrup | December 10, 2008
Usually by around this time of the Christmas season, I’m borderline nuts. I’m almost always behind on Christmas shopping, Christmas cards and deadlines at work (which are accelerated due to the holidays).
“How am I going to get everything done in the next two weeks?” I’m asking myself, realizing even as I ask that some items are going to fall through the cracks.
There will be at least a few friends or relatives who see our annual Christmas photo card arrive in the mail in January. If the gifts start to stretch past our funds, Jodie and I will likely put off our gifts to each other until later. Deadlines are less forgiving, but if there’s any fudge room I’ll find it.
It’s really cliché to talk about the holiday rush. Because in our culture “holiday” and “rush” are now synonyms, as oxymoronic as that sounds. But our rushing around is not the grand original plan behind Christmas, believe me.
The God who sent His Son into this world is the Creator of the Sabbath. He is the God of whom the Psalmist said, “My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him” (Psalm 62:1, NIV).
That passage is especially appropriate at Christmas, which is all about God’s gift of salvation, the gift that offers our souls rest.
One character at the very heart of the earth-shaping events that first Christmas had every reason to feel stressed. Mary had endured the trauma of an out-of-wedlock pregnancy, had given birth in a stable, had been told by awestruck shepherds of a mighty host of angels announcing her Son’s birth.
Yet, in the midst of it all, Mary didn’t rush or stress out.
“Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).
A good example for me to follow.
Topics: Family Life, Bible |
