There’s a lot that we can say about the Christmas season, and this year is shaping up to be no exception. We’re no strangers to the blessings and trials of the holidays, and by now, we’ve all certainly heard the popular yearly reminder as to who is really the reason for our season.
Needing a Respite
I covet those silent wintery moments that come unbidden, bringing about that beautiful, quiet hopefulness that is prevalent yet often unspoken. In that still, quiet, dark winter night, where your breath hangs in the air and you can almost hear the snow touching the ground; that is the place where I feel the powerful reassurance of the Holy Spirit move right through me, where peacefulness wins, and hope rides in victoriously on a white horse.
A Reminder of the unexpected
Once again I’ve been reminded to take another look at some things that we maybe have forgotten in our busyness. There is a reminder here that we can catch in the Christmas season: our God is the God of Deliberate Action, and His deliberate action rarely takes the form we expect. How often do we stop to recognize the subtle acts of our Savior? Like this song suggests, the coming of Christ was a deliberate action that took a very specific form.
He is a God of process, presence and relationship that was delivered in a very small, small package, with ten fingers and ten toes.
Cutting through Chaos
We’ll hear much over the next several days about everything that can possibly be related to Christmas, from Santa, to sales, from Season’s Greetings to “Jesus is the Reason” and we are tempted to find the whole thing overwhelming. But, like the song says, God came quiet, soft, and slow, and in the midst of everything that we are told to believe is a part of Christmas, God offers us an invitation to share His quiet, His soft, and His slow in our own lives. He is after all, the Prince of Peace, and his Peace–the one that surpasses all understanding–can also surpass supermarket lines, traffic jams, parties, plans, and busyness. It overcomes the unwelcome circumstances that impose their presence on an already frantic season.
His peace is portable, and inexhaustible.
May we all find that Holy Peace we can carry with us through our Christmas season, and beyond.
- What has been your experience of the Christmas season so far this year?
- What do you love the most about celebrating the birth of Christ?
- What does it mean that Jesus is the Prince of Peace?
- What little or big thing can you do to invite Jesus’ Peace into your season?
There is a reminder here that we can catch in the Christmas season: our God is the God of Deliberate Action, and His deliberate action rarely takes the form we expect.
