And just like that, tomorrow is Christmas.
You know, I took a minute to run through TJ Max yesterday, to find that one last thing,
and the place was picked clean.
Two husbands, like a couple of lost sheep, were in search of a very specific jewelry box, and I pointed them in the direction it would have been in...had they planned a little better.
"Look at us! Two stupid husbands waiting until last minute", they laughed as they thanked me and ran to the other side of the store.
I knew they would not find what they were searching for.
It is crunch time, for us weary moms and back aching dads, for us scrambling husbands and wives. Wired kids are home from school, and the house looks turned upside down, and the groceries are at least in the house, and this is the point where we stand among the chaos and mess and those last minute details and wonder, "how on earth will I pull this all off?" Until we realize...
we don't need to pull of anything.
He already pulled it all off.
We only need to stay awake so we don't miss it.
He is coming to be born to us...to the folks who are wrapping and cooking and running and stressing...the people who have forgotten why we are doing what we are doing...the families who are tired and the husbands and wives who look at one another and have no idea who they are looking at anymore...the children who are lost and feel forgotten...the people who are stuck in the dark and see no way out...the scared, the lonely, the ones paralyzed by sin, the doubtful and the angry, the miserable and the overjoyed...all of us...He is coming for us.
And it is not too late.
Do not think for a minute that this year "you missed it."
There is still time.
There is always grace.
And there is no last minute detail, no one last thing, that will satisfy any of us to the point where we can sit back and say "there. I am done."
There is only the one...
and He is not done...not with any of us...and praise God for that.
And I am praying that we can all quiet the noise of this world, and sit, for just a moment, in that stable with Mary, and recognize the absolutely unbelievable truth that is about to take place.
Our God, is about to come to us as a helpless newborn baby, and because of this baby in a wooden manger, because of this baby on the wood of that cross, we have been given a gift that no store can give, that no last minute detail can fulfill: eternal happiness, life after death, an ocean of mercy, undeserved grace, peace and joy, unspeakable love, forgiveness of sins, hope beyond measure. And good grief, who doesn't want that?
I am sitting here with coffee wondering if those two husbands at TJ Max ever found what they were searching for. And how about you this Christmas Eve? What have you yet to find?
Let us point each other in the right direction today.
