I always feel sorry, particularly at this time of the year, for people “in the preaching trade” because finding something new to say about Christmas year after year must be so very hard. How many different ways can a preacher preach the Christmas message, for instance, or find fresh insights into the birth stories in Luke or Matthew? It’s a tall order.
Somehow, though, the Christmas message doesn’t need novelty from a preacher. The story of the birth of Jesus has its own power and, if we are willing, it works its own purpose in our lives. Each year it surprises me how a fresh insight comes even to me to speak good news from the Gospels at this holy time.
This year the fresh insight that has come to me is that God is not a perfectionist. We are all going to work hard to make sure that Christmas is just right. We will make sure that nothing goes wrong. We will try to buy the right present, say the right thing, get all the arrangements right, tidy the place and put up the decorations. But God did none of that when God sent Jesus into this world. There was no room for Jesus, the arrangements hadn’t been made properly, but he came anyway, just as he was, to a world just as it was.
So, before we all become disappointed by the tackiness of this generation’s commercial Christmas, let’s also reflect on the fact that this is the way the world has always been, and this is the world that God loved so much that he sent his only son Jesus so that he might show us God’s love.
Thank God for his love, which embraces us too, just as we are; a long way from being perfect, but precious in the sight of our non-perfectionist God.
Gerry Creaney
