nitty gritty

it is 20˚ outside and the frozen rain is slowly turning to snow.  we are supposed to have 7-10 inches of the fluff by morning… we’re excited.  the kids are all playing or watching Star Wars: Episode 5, The Empire Strikes Back (my favorite of the saga).  we have a fire in the fireplace, all is good.  I have a friend who found out this week that she has breast cancer.  another friend was dreading the time he was to spend with his hurting family.  my in laws spent the last 2 days in the hospital with my Brother-in-law Gary (they’re home now, and much healthier and happier).  in just a few minutes we are gonna sit down and read Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus.  the kids all agreed that tomorrow morning, before we open presents, we are gonna sing soem praise to the newborn King (Judi is doing a great job with them).

back to baby Jesus for a minute.  the life that his parents were caught up in was socially tragic and most of their friendships had likely been damaged by their outlandish story of Mary becoming pregnant by, if you can believe this, the Spirit of YHWH! No doubt the gossip flew around the market… “Okay, kids make mistakes, but why don’t they just own up to it, get married and make it all good?”  meanwhile Joseph and Mary decide to take a dangerous and tiring trip on a top of the line donkey across one of the most demanding and difficult environments on the planet!  when they finally arrive in Joseph’s family’s home town, they can’t even get a place to sleep, then the unthinkable.  first just a drip of water, then a gush followed by increasing pain.  a young virgin is giving birth to a baby with only her inexperienced boyfriend to help her through it.  no mid-wife, no sisters, no Mom… just Joseph and some curious animals of a barnyard nature watching this everyday miracle unfurl right there in their stable… hardly stable (do ya get the double meaning there?).

what do they have to do with you and me?  EVERYTHING!  if you are like me, you are consistently chasing after a balanced, stable life… here’s the problem though, IT DOESN’T EXIST!  there’s no such thing as a stable life.  the minute you think you have figured out how to make the ends meet, the ends get moved in a 10.0 richter scale quake… uuugghhh! so just like a young unmarried couple trying to figure out how they were gonna make it in there 1st century israeli town, we find ourselves scratching our heads and wondering what the answer is, when all of a sudden the Answer is unfurled right under our noses.

if He could be born into the life that His Father had dealt Him and not fail, well, then I/we have nothing to complain about.  the stable life that I am chasing isn’t running away from me, it is right here and it is found in Him.

i cannot wait to tuck the kids in, and listen to them struggle to get to sleep. honestly, i am going to have as hard a time falling asleep as they will. i cannot wait to wake up and watch them open gifts.  i cannot wait to sip coffee as they play with their new toys. mostly though, i cannot wait to sing with my family before the day gets going.  whatever else happens this weekend (like my truck breaking down on a friend who borrowed it to go to Kansas City) i have to remember that the stable life is all about a stable.