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Cookies, presents, lights, shopping, get-togethers, caroling, eggnog, excitement, stories, memories, snow, music and cards create for us a sense of Christmas—a mood or a feeling. We delight in sitting down in front of a roaring fire, wrapped cozily up in a warm blanket enjoying the quiet of evening after a long day. And these things all have their place. As creatures, we are given this world to experience and to enjoy. But we will be left empty if we are dependent on all that to give us a sense of longed-for peace.
You know what I’m talking about. If after December 25th, when the presents are opened and the carols seem to lose their charm, and the kids are wrangling over whose turn it is to play the newest game, we become impatient and long for that idyllic “peace” mentioned above, then may I suggest that perhaps we’ve missed the point of the season.
Jesus’ birth is to bring “peace to men on whom His favor rests” (Luke 2:14). That peace is really the contentment that comes from knowing every moment of life is under the providence of a good and wise God who desires His children to live in His world in His ways. It comes whether the season is filled with frenzy or with fellowship. It is a part of life whether the children behave or if they are disobedient. It is that humbling sense of knowing that I am not the director of my world. It causes me to realize that I am a dependent creature—not an autonomous lord demanding my way. It tells me that submission to what He brings to me each day is best, whether clogged toilets or children remembering to say “please.”
Why?
Because that is what Christ did in coming to earth. He who is the Director of this world’s affairs submitted Himself to becoming flesh so that whether we children behave or not, He came to save us from ourselves. Humility before Him is Peace. May you know the child-like wonder of standing in the stable before Him this season and knowing that Peace.