This morning, I was struck once again by the wonder –

IT HAPPENED! IT REALLY HAPPENED!

Our Christmas celebrations are quite stuffed with traditions and activities that encompass bits and pieces from various cultures and times.

 Santas and reindeer
 Long Christmas stockings
 Jingle bells jangling as
 neighbors come knocking.
 Memories that light up our hearts as we sing – 
 These  are a few of our loved Christmas things.
 
 Starlight and firelight
 Elves making toys
 Red holly berries and
 babe’s Christmas joys
 Fudges and cookies with pounds that they bring – 
 These are a few of our loved Christmas things.
 
 But our hearts sigh,
 and the joys fly
 when the day is past;
 For then we remember that these Christmas things
 fade from our grasp so fast!
 (apologies to Rogers and Hammerstein) 

I digress, or do I?

We are so vested in the traditions of Christmas that the arrival of the Christ Child often becomes just one more scene in the pageantry.

God gave us the story in Luke chapter two to remind us – IT REALLY HAPPENED! GOD CAME TO EARTH!

 He set the time firmly in history –
 during the reign of Caesar Augustus 
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria
  
 He surrounded the account with current events – 
 Rome was counting the people to 
ensure that taxes would be paid.
Everyone was traveling to 
their ancestral home.
  
 He determined a specific place – 
 Bethlehem Ephrathah – 
just five miles outside of Jerusalem
  
 He provided details and eyewitnesses – 
 The town was crowded, 
so there was no room in the inn.
 The Child was laid in a manger.
 Angels sang and announced the birth.
 Shepherds came to visit. 

The birth of the incarnate (in the flesh) Son of God happened.  God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

Bethlehem wasn’t a side show that night; it was the main event,

and most of the world missed it.

Caught up in the hassles of everyday life, people worked or worried or slept right through the wonder and the awe, the miracle of His birth.

I don’t want to miss the miracle this Christmas. I don’t want to get so busy preparing to celebrate that I miss the One Who deserves to be celebrated.

I pray that my heart sifts through the glitter and the wrappings and the tinsel and the lights and pauses to worship –

Immanuel,

God with us.

Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Galatians 4:⁴ But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, ⁵ To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.