The mess of God's story. A Christmas reflection

We had recently set out our Christmas decorations and the girls were playing "Nativity".  We have a couple sets that we let them play with and they walk their Little People through the Christmas story details that they know.  This particular day they also brought down their play food and incorporated that into the story as well.  I was in the kitchen working on dinner, and this is what I overheard in the living room:

"Hey Wise Guy!  Can you hand me an avocado?"
"I think we are out of avocados.  Do you want a.... (surveying play food) doughnut?"
"We aren't out of avocados!  There is one right by your other foot... wait! doughnut? Yes!  I want the doughnut."
"Wise Guy!  We better pack up the rest of this food for our trip."  Child wraps food into a tortilla to be loaded onto a camel.

 I find traveling snacks a very essential part of any journey and apparently I am passing this trait on to my children and they are helping their "Wise Guys" load up camels full of felt fajitas and hand-knit baked goods.  I'm not sure where my kids got the idea to call them "Wise Guys."  I am making a mental note to educate them in calling them "Wise Men."  It sounds more respectful.

Listening to the way that they play out the story makes me think.  In a funny sort of way, it makes the story come alive.  There are so many details that we don't know.  What kind of traveling snacks did the wise men eat?  What about Mary?  In her latter stages of pregnancy did she have cravings?  Did Joseph run out at the last minute and buy some kind of favorite dried fruit for their long trip to Bethlehem? How long did he plead for a room, and then a space... and then ANY kind of space....   I can just picture him saying, "Hey sir? Yes, I know that you are out of rooms, but I think that my wife is about to give birth on the street out there and it would be really awesome if we could just stay in your shed.  I'm not even kidding."

I wonder if along the way there were ever any times that Mary or Joseph second guessed God's plan.  "Oh wow, God?... remember how we are having this really important baby?  Are you sure you wanted him to be born here in this stable? I kind of had a different idea about how this might work out."

Can we all agree that the wise men made a very unfortunate stop to ask directions?  Oh oh, yes, I know that the consequences of that had been prophesied long before that... but the point I am trying to make is that when we look with just our physical eyes, the story of Jesus' birth is a loaded story of a couple of very difficult journeys. Journeys that take a few turns that certainly wouldn't have happened if we were the ones writing the story.

Sometimes I feel like there is a lie that has crept into our hearts...  that if there is something that God wants us to do then He is going to "open the doors" and if the "doors" don't open for you pretty easily, well then, it's probably not really what He wanted.

I am making an observation.  The best God stories are really messy, and not at all the way that we would expect or plan. Not many doors just open smoothly.  Sometimes God calls us to blaze a trail, and trailblazing is actually a lot of work.  It's often messy, sweaty, and not very beautiful at all to the naked eye.

But for people who know what to look for, we can see the beauty in the story.  This is story of a very young and very poor couple moving forward in a story that didn't really make sense.  They were walking into the unknown and closed doors, but it didn't matter because God was with them.  I think that when you are confident that God is with you, a lot of things don't matter anymore and you can do things that you might not have thought you could.  Giving birth to a baby in a barn, for example.

So friend, if you are living a journey that seems wrought with difficulty, take heart.  Emmanuel.  God is with us.  I pray this is the truth that grips your heart this season.  We celebrate because He came near.  I pray that you will be strengthened as you walk your hard road or you face another closed door or your path takes a twist that seems so far from what you would have planned.

He is with you.