Silent Night?

One of the most popular Christmas Carols starts out like this:

"Silent Night, Holy Night,
All is calm, all is bright . . ."

Silent? Calm? The birth of Jesus was neither silent or calm. It was loud and filled with chaos. There was a census taking place in Bethlehem and thousands of people were coming to the city. All the hotels were full. There were probably people sleeping in the streets or wherever they could find a place to lay their head.

The streets were packed shoulder to shoulder with people trying to get to where they were staying. The marketplace had so many people it moved like a traffic jam in the middle of Manhattan. People trying to buy the food they needed that day or for their stay in town.

As all this was going on, a man pledged to a woman, who by the way was pregnant, very pregnant, makes his way into Bethlehem leading a donkey. I was just at the Football Hall of Fame Friday. It was kids get in free day, it was packed! Some woman tried to maneuver the stroller through the crowd. Joseph is trying to maneuver a donkey through the crowd, can you imagine.

His wife to be is about to give birth and he is trying to find a place to stay while leading a donkey. Every hotel he goes to he is told there is no vacancy. And it is calm? It is silent? Are you kidding me? It's a mess.

Christmas time can be messy. It can get chaotic. It can be tiring. It can get frustrating and complicated. That first Christmas was all of that an more. There are times during this season we turn and cry out, "God, help me!"

And in a very silent and calm way he did. You see, it was not God that made the first Christmas messy or this Christmas messy. It is us, people who do not look at the silent or calm. In a very silent way "God with us" entered into the world. He did not come with trumpets blaring, he came quietly amongst the chaos.

When he entered as a baby, when he came in the flesh, his mother and father experienced calmness in their heart as they held him for the first time. Even though it was loud and chaotic Mary and Joseph experienced peace.

I remember when all three of my boys were born. There was a lot going on in the room as Rhonda was going through labor. It was loud and in an organized way chaotic (because when a baby decides to come into the world it comes whether your ready or not).

But when the baby is born all chaos doesn't matter. There is a sense of calmness and a different kind of silence as you hold that child for the first time. The world around you stops for a moment. Your focus is on the life that has just entered the world. There is nothing like that experience.

Mary and Joseph went through that same experience I did when their son was born that loud and chaotic night. Their focus was on their baby, not everything that was going on around them.

In the messiness you may be experiencing or will experience during the Christmas season, focus on the baby. "God with us" who came to change the world. Everything else just doesn't matter. Let the prince of peace truly give you peace even if your life is messy.