Maybe what the world needs is a Christmas on Our Knees

The dawn broke through the horizon and spilled through my curtain panels. I prayed-God, help me see people, help me love them this Christmas season. My people. People I don’t know. All of them.

I rolled over to check-in with my phone before checking-in with my coffee. While scrolling through my newsfeed I was stopped by a long string of prayer requests posted on a local radio station page. So much hurt. So much despair. People suffering. Grief bursting at the seams. Loved ones dead and sick and facing unimaginable pain. Divorce papers to sign and court dates for custody to attend. Cancer-oh that dreadful word that threatens to take over so many bodies, so many souls.

And I realized, if this dark world feels dark, even at the most joyful time of year, it’s because it is. It always has been. That why Christmas came.

…because true home is far from here. 

…yet, a taste of home is right beside us.

Home, it's the grace moments we’re given to love our little ones when we’d rather surrender in self-weakness. We can rest upon home when our Savior speaks through the pastor pulpit in an unexpected sermon. Home is whispered when the woman who buries her husband proclaims Glory to God in the Highest because she feels His presence and His presence is peace. Home is the joy-filled laughter heard from tickled babies and felt in the warm embrace of a soldier-husband coming home from war. Home is the love we embody when we extend selfless love to another, not expecting anything in return.

And this home. It is Heaven. Jesus is drawing us home every day. The babe in the manger that came to the world that long ago time comes to us every day on earth. Fully home is fully Heaven but what makes it home is the presence of our savior. Not the absence of pain and suffering for eternity. But Heaven, Home, is where our loving, mighty God is.

Choosing peace and joy in this world boils down to this…will you make room for Him in your inn, in you? Not just to secure eternity but to welcome Him to lead you through this finite life also. Will you lean into Him, into Heaven. Listen to the voice of your Savior singing over you. See Him woe you with his wonder-filled creation. Give heed to the child He sent to lift your soul from dark and allow room in your heart for the Savior who saved you. Will you search the Word to know His intimate love, his wild passionate love for you. Will you be romanced by the author of romance. Will you look above the cloud looming over you just to taste and see that He is good. Does the baby in the manger only symbolize peace to you when you glance at Him during Christmas…or do you live peace with that tiny babe who became everything you need.

I prayed for those people. I scrolled through and read comment after comment with tear-stained eyes spilling out sorrow for them. It sobered me. It down right threw me right out the pit of self-pity I had been coddling. It reminded me why the babe gave up his Heaven seat to come down. To save us. Yes, you know-from eternity with hell and separation from God. But He always has more to do than what we think. He is saving us daily from a life void of peace. He offers his hand of hope while we sing O Holy Night, the Stars were Brightly Shinning. And they still shine. Because He holds them in their place.  

And what about the shepherds who came to the manger, I’ve wondered this Christmas. Why them? Ah-ha... They were servers of the sheep and watchers of the field. They protected their precious sheep from the prowling dangers of the world. They took the sheep gleanings of wool to clothe the people and provide for them. And so is the reason our shepherd came. Jesus. Shepherd of us, His sheep. The shepherds were chosen to bow to the ultimate shepherd because Jesus considers it high honor to serve and love the sheep. Our shepherd tends to us so that we can use our gleanings to bless the people. With His coming, he shepherds you so that you can use your gleanings to bless the world. So the world can sing in wonder at the shepherds...

1. Shepherds, why this jubilee?
   Why your joyous strains prolong?
   What the gladsome tidings be
   Which inspire your heav’nly song?
2. We long for rescue from our suffering, oh how we long for it. And we will have it when we reach the gates of our sweet eternity with God. But what about here on earth, we wonder. Is it even possible to sing Joy to the World with our lives instead of only on Christmas Eve?

If standing tall with joy seems too much for you this Christmas season, or any season, might you adopt this song and allow your weary self to really live these lyrics...

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices

For yonder breaks a new and glorious morn'
Fall on your knees, O hear the angels' voices
O night divine, O night when Christ was born
O night divine, O night, O night divine

Jesus came humbly to allow us, and command us, to be humble too. If the world-reigner came any other way the world would have continued standing tall with pride. But instead, the world came to his baby bed and knelt…they fell on their knees in humble worship and adoration.

Maybe this Christmas we don’t stand and shout to our Savior. Maybe this Christmas we fall on our knees, in prayer, in praise, in adoration. To offer a kind of heart throbbing, gut-spilling, honest prayer. One for ourselves, many for others. On our knees we are positioned to look up to Him and be reminded that while our earthly pain is ever-so-real, we can still sing…

Silent night, Holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant, tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace,
Sleep in heavenly peace.

Silent night, Holy night
Son of God, love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace,
Jesus, Lord at thy birth
Jesus, Lord at thy birth.

Silent night, Holy night
Shepherds quake, at the sight
Glories stream from heaven above
Heavenly, hosts sing Hallelujah.
Christ the Savior is born,
Christ the Savior is born.

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.