The Adventures of Christmas Sample

December 20th

My wife spent five years praying for our third child. I thought we were done after two boys, but God and my wife had other plans. Our youngest is literally an answer to prayer, a little miracle. He was three weeks early. Clearly he wanted to make an exciting entrance into the world so he decided to start with not being able to breathe on his own. He scored a zero on the first test he ever had to take, so he spent the first five days of his life in the ICU… surrounded by nurses who threatened to keep him because he was so precious. By the grace of God, my son is 100% now and breathes like a champ. But as a baby, every time he cried was a reminder of the miracle of breath and he gave us many times to reflect on this.

Part of the Christmas miracle is Mary most likely going through the usual pregnancy process like morning sickness or stretch marks, and the not so traditional experiences like rejection from friends and family, traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem and giving birth in a barn. God never promised that his plan or path would be glamorous, but he did promise that the end results would be glorious

This is the time of year when many things threaten to rob us of the Christmas spirit.

Several years ago, I had the worst head flu ever over Christmas. It was more than just the season for sneezing. I had a fever, body aches, nausea and a whole lot of whining. A friend of mine asked if there was anything he could do for me and in a moment of weakness I asked him to punch whoever gave this to me. To make matters worse, my youngest kept watching the Wiggles Christmas video over and over and I was powerless to stop him. I called it the Lazarus flu, for I was dead for four days and when I finally arose from the couch my family said like Lazarus' family…. "Surely he stinketh.”

Don’t let the messiness of Christmas distract from the miracle of Christmas. In the words of Albert Einstein, “there’s only two ways to see the world. Everything is a miracle or nothing is a miracle.” God’s miracles include all of the mess. 

Build a gingerbread house and reflect on how life, like the miniature Christmas house, can be both beautiful and messy.