Christmas Musing #30 Pondering the Wonderful

 ⁵¹ And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive to them. And his mother treasured up all these things in her heart. Luke 2:51 English Standard Version

               “Mr. Robinson, do you know what I liked the most about your class,” a former student recently asked me?

               I wasn’t sure how to respond. Was it the reading material I assigned? Was it the fact that I let them drink coffee or hot chocolate in my class, an oddity in High School? Perhaps, it was the fun assignments? After all, I did try and dream up interesting things for students to do. Maybe it was the art or group projects? Those always seemed to get a warm response. Maybe, just maybe, it was the fun lectures? I did know that some students enjoyed the classroom discussions spawned by the lectures.

               “I’m not sure,” I replied, “What was it?

               “Christmas time,” they said, “I always knew that once you started playing Christmas music on the first of November, we’d get a day to decorate the classroom and then when we came back from Christmas break, we’d get a day to take down all the decorations.”

               Though it wasn’t quite what I expected, it could have been worse. I enjoy Christmas, all of it. But I love the deep spiritual meditation of the season. Sometimes the crush of events and the bedlam of racing from place to place distracts me, and I forget to pause and consider the import of Advent. I am possessed of a disposition that often worries about minutia. I want things to be “just so.” Fortunately, when the darkness falls and the quiet descends, Bethlehem beckons. In my mind I go to the stable, take my place, and stand my watch with the assembled. I consider the astounding miracle of God becoming flesh. The how eludes me. How can the being who created this earth and all that is in it compress themselves into a small infant child. Even more slippery and incomprehensible is the why.

               Why would the Lord care so much? Like Mary, I’ve stored all these things up in my mind. Through scripture, I travel all the way back to the garden and hear the crunch that echoes down through time. More importantly, I hear the promise of a coming salvation and its echo. God whispers to many different people in different ways, “I’m coming, and I will set things right.” The Maji turn and bid me join them in their long journey to worship and honor the new-born king. The shepherds, sitting on the hill, amazed at the rent sky and heavenly hosts spilling out with God’s glory, call to me to join them in seeking the Christ-Child.

               We all come to the manger in the stable. Yes, I know the Maji probably came later; however, in my mind we all arrive at the manger together. All of creation holds its breath in wonder at this mighty miracle, wrapped in infant flesh swathed in strips of cloth, lying on a bed of straw. Sitting alone in the soft glow of our Christmas lights, I turn these things over in my mind and wonder. Why would He care so much? Luke got it right, all of these things are treasure, coins to spend on those days when my heart grows sick of sin and the darkness of the world. They are coin to spend on the rejuvenation of my heart. So each Christmas, I ponder on this wonderful thing that God has done that makes all the difference for me…and this sin-sick world.