AN EMPTY-HANDED CHRISTMAS by Elizabeth Garn for Core Christianity
The day after Thanksgiving is a pretty big day for me; it’s the day I start getting ready for Christmas dinner. It takes me a full month because, as I’m sure you can imagine, there is a lot to do! There are Christmas trees to be trimmed, mantles to be decorated, and candles to be lit. There is food to be planned, gifts to be wrapped, and centerpieces to be arranged. And then, of course, there is the cleaning… So much cleaning.
I want everything to be beautiful, sparkly, almost magical. I want to have good things to offer my family and want everything to be… perfect. Can you relate? I grew up in a home where the true meaning of Christmas was paramount. I have understood the importance of the incarnation for as long as I can remember and yet every year in the face of picture-perfect ads and Pinterest-worthy Facebook photos I find myself slipping into a place of trying to measure up. And It’s not just with my family, this feeling of needing to be enough seeps into my very relationship with Christ.
I know Christmas is about worshiping the Savior King and yet time and time again my heart deceives itself into thinking that merely showing up is not enough. I want to have something to offer, some worthiness of my own, not to earn my salvation but to somehow thank him. At Christmas, I become deeply aware of the magnitude of his gift, and deeply aware of how unworthy I am to receive it. So I try to dust myself off, work hard, and bring something, anything, of value to my king. I’m afraid showing up empty handed will not be enough, and yet that is exactly what we are invited to do.
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What the Shepherds Taught Me
We don’t know much about the setting. We don’t know if it was unseasonably warm, or if icy winds pushed the shepherds closer to their fires. We’re not sure if it was clear and bright, or if clouds hid the stars from view. What we do know is it was close to Bethlehem, it was night, and the shepherds were doing what shepherds do…watching their sheep. Oh, and we know they were shepherds. Not quite the lowest of the low, but still men who dwelled on the outskirts of society. They worked hard, but at a job that left them scraggly and smelly. When most of the people in their world had homes, they had tents. Where others had dirty feet, they had dirty…everything. And they slept with farm animals, so there was that too.
