Merry Christmas?

I was dressing some sock snow people and having a merry time when my man shuffled by with a basket load of whites, heading for the laundry room.  While fashioning a tiny felt scarf, I was deep in thought.  It occurred to me that (while necessary) washing a load of underwear was such a mundane, un-Christmassy thing to do on December 23rd. 

There are so many activities that are synonymous with Christmas for me:  cooking for family gatherings; finding goofy gifts to stuff in the kids' stockings; unpacking decorations and finding just the right spot to enjoy the memories they hold; carving out some time to meet dear friends for dinner at a favorite Mexican restaurant.  I listen to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker and John Denver's Christmas with The Muppets and Handel's Messiah.  It's a Wonderful Life with a cup of hot tea . . . yep.  That's Christmas.

But the world presses in, and, try as I might, I can't suspend everything that doesn't sparkle until at least December 27th.  This child is sick from the stress of being let go from a job in mid-December.  Someone has just heard the word cancer from the doctor.  A friend's family member is having open heart surgery on Christmas Eve--for goodness sake.  Another confides with sadness that Christmas will not include any family this year, while yet another sorts through her mother's home after the funeral.  Merry Christmas.  Merry Christmas?

Yes.  Merry Christmas!  Why?  Why not?!  At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the perfect Savior of this broken world.  Financial trials, job loss, serious illness, family strife, grief, and death are each and all a part of the reason that God sent His Son.

I wish I were eloquent enough to explain the assurance I know in my heart.  Here's what a man named Paul wrote in a letter to some folks he knew.

If God didn't hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn't gladly and freely do for us?  . . . 

The One who died for us--who was raised to life for us!--is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us.  Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ's love for us?  There is no way!  Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture.  . . . 

None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us.  I'm absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.  (Romans 8:31-39 The Message)

 The God of the Universe is in control.  Merry Christmas indeed.