Merry Christmas Eve my friends! As has become tradition over these last 7 years, I am sitting down to write a post reflecting on Christmas. Each year my perspective has been different. 365 days go by and somehow life seems to shift so immensely that our worlds look nearly unrecognizable one year to the next. This year has been unique. Welcoming TWINS, Greysen entering PreK, Jonathan still in hot pursuit of his career goals, and me being a wife, Mommy, and now the interim children’s minister at our church. You could never have convinced me this time last year that this is what December 24th, 2019 was going to look like. Good, bad, and everything in between, God has just so perfectly orchestrated our lives and Jonathan and I both feel strongly that we are right where we are supposed to be right now. Even though sometimes it feels like a big sloppy mess of chaos. Well let’s be honest...MOST of the time is feels like a big sloppy mess of chaos. Somehow in the midst of the crazy, though, the Lord quietly speaks peace and comfort over us. He constantly reminds us that all is well. Even when we feel like things are FAR from well...
You would think that two new babies at once would bear the theme of chaos. Exhaustion maybe. Confusion. Too much. But my how our Lord has flipped that script! What has He taught me this year? What word does He keep repeating to me?
“Rachel...be willing to be STILL.”
Still?? Really God?? But how...and WHY??
I think the Christmas story actually lends itself to this very concept. God incarnated Himself as a little baby. Born to a simple girl in a “mean estate”. They didn’t have an endless string of visitors (don’t let your mainstream manger scene fool you!). Aside from the angels appearing to the shepherds, there was no pomp and circumstance. There was no huge sweeping fanfare. Everything was STILL...
God is challenging me right now. He’s challenging me to just stop and let Him be in control. That is SUCH a hard thing to do. But if I say I trust Him. If I say I believe that He says what He means and that He does what He says He’ll do, then my only response is to let go of my control. To be STILL. To soak in HIM...
If I were Mary and I knew the gravity of the life I held in my arms the night Jesus was born, that would have been my response too. I wouldn’t even want to let my mind wander to what might lie ahead. Don’t get it twisted. Mary was a good Jew...she knew the prophesies. And if she believed Gabriel when he told her who she was carrying, then she knew, at least on some level, what was coming. But she “stored those things in her mind”. She put them aside in favor of soaking up JESUS in the moment. She embraced the STILLNESS. And she believe God would be faithful...
Wasn’t He? Isn’t He? Won’t He be?
Where is our willingness to be STILL? What if the action God wants from us is to just be quiet and get out of His way so He can show off??
We serve a BIG God who came to earth to participate in humanity alongside us. He came in the STILLNESS. In the quietness of a lowly stable. Thats where we meet the Savior of Humanity! His debut was quiet and unassuming. Magnifying relationship and intimacy. Showcasing the way He wants us to find Him every time we search....
May your Christmas be filled with joy and laughter and excitement. But may it be filled equally if not more so with STILLNESS. And may you meet your Savior within that relational intimacy where He makes His very REAL presence known!
Merry Christmas y’all!
