14. Pilgrimage to Paradise: Losing the Message in the Muddle

I recently searched local church websites looking for Christmas Eve services. Feeling a little like I was playing the role of the Grinch, I wanted to find services that didn't involve some kind of performance with children, or for them. An odd thing to do when all the world knows that Christmas is for kids, right?

Please don't misunderstand. I was the little girl in the red velvet dress who recited her parts in every Christmas pageant. I loved it—and I still enjoy seeing the kids participate in their Christmas programs. But, if memory serves, our Kids' Christmas programs were never on Christmas Eve. That moment was dedicated to THE Kid—the Holy Child. That was my goal in my website search—find a traditional Christmas Eve service whose focus is strictly on one Child rather than on the cuteness of other children.

Because Christmas is about one Child.

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth" writes the Apostle in John 1:14.

Paul follows up with: "…who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness." 

The cradle quickly turns to the cross as he adds: "And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:6-8)

Emmanuel, God with us. God in a cradle. God on a cross.

It's easy to lose the message in the midst of the muddle.

Peter didn't want the pilgrims of his era to do that, to forget the message in the midst of their struggles. As he writes to remind them to be like Jesus as they face persecution, suffering and loss, he also reminds them that this Jesus, because of whose Name they are suffering: "'...himself bore our sins' in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; 'by his wounds you have been healed.' For 'you were like sheep going astray,' but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls." (1 Peter 2:24, 25)

No, I don't want to be the Grinch who stole Christmas. But nor do I want to forget that the Glory of God was first found in a cradle—the first step on the journey to a cross—for me.

Because Christmas is all about that.