Mom Diaries: Christmas! Paraugs

Sar- Shalom

What are the words that come to your mind, if I ask you for a Christmas checklist?

Tinsel?

Baking?

Santa?

Tree?

Feast?

Carols?

What about the word Peace? 

Would you associate it with all the rush and busyness of the season? With all the crowded malls, the loudspeakers blaring carols, the arguments over who takes one kid to choir practice and who ferries the other to soccer?

Would you think of calm and quiet when you see the blinding LED displays announcing the season's best sales?

But if you can think back to your almost accurate Sunday School plays, you will realize that even the Biblical description of the very first Christmas was anything but a silent night!

There was a blindingly bright angelic presence.

A loud heavenly choir.

A lot of knocking on doors by Joseph. Definitely some groans of pain from Mary in labor.

The whole city was bustling with people, so there must've been chaotic village squares and noisy taverns.

And apart from a newborn infant, there were visiting shepherds with their bleating flocks.

There was also an underlying sense of political urgency and desperation in the land.

So, not a model of peace.

But that is explicitly what the Lord of the Advent promises you and me.

And it's not just an explicit promise, it is an exclusive one.

Only available to those who put in their lot with Jesus.

Peace cannot depend on our external circumstances and the bustle of life. That's the easiest way to stay scared and anxious.

But the peace that Jesus can birth within us, can overcome circumstances, people, a pandemic, deficit, and heartbreak.

So when now I hear the words "...sleep in heavenly peace...", I realize it does not mean literally the baby Jesus in His manger. It means the Messiah and His character.

We go on to read, "But Mary treasured all these things in her heart and often pondered what they meant." Luke 2: 19 (TPT).

So you see? Moms see Christmas differently!

Join us over the next few days to go through Moms' Christmas Diaries.

May Jesus be your Sar Shalom this season.