Pondering...

Today I am feeling, as my parents used to call it, "droopy" and so I am able to do even less than usual, which means, not a whole darn lot. I am still thinking about Christmas, and trying to balance what is cultural and what actually has to do with baby Jesus. I feel rather removed from any Christmas cheer going around.

Which is why I probably noticed the lady checking out my groceries when I went to the store for my friend yesterday. She looked rather worn down, but she asked, "Ready for Christmas?" as she was scanning. (Apparently political correctness has not traveled south to Quaint Small Town...) I replied, "Eh, I don't know if I'm ever ready. What about you?" She quickly told me- I was in the 15 items or less line- that she didn't much feel like celebrating this year. Her father was in a nursing home, she was having to travel a lot to see him, and she had no other family. I asked her if she went to church. She said she mostly works on Sundays. She also was generally unable to go to the Wednesday night group.

That's when I volunteered my friend. I said, "If you ever want to meet for tea and Bible study, please call my friend. Or call if you just need someone to talk or pray with." The lady ripped off some blank receipt paper and I wrote my friend's phone number. I told her to call any time. I asked her if I could pray for her and her father when I got home, which my friend and I did. And we prayed that if the lady needed encouragement, that she would call.

I now have volunteered my friend for at least 3 people to come over for tea. (If you read the post about the mini-marshmallows btw, the salon ladies couldn't find a time for a Christmas party before they left town, but they are still up for tea and Bible study when they return.)

I share this to show that you don't have to have 3 hour long deep coffee shop discussions with intelligent musicians to connect with someone. I just try to see people as people. My dad taught me that. Everyone has a story. Everyone is trying to get through life with all its trials and joys.

Joseph, Mary, and little baby Jesus had a lot of hardship to deal with too. The only room this world made for them was with the animals. They weren't at the center of the Christmas parties (or the census registering parties in the inn). They were poor, and I can't imagine it was terribly comfortable for young Mary riding all the way to Bethlehem on a donkey, so pregnant she was about to pop. But then Jesus is born, and he is put to bed in a feed trough. Then the shepherds came, and an angel, and there was this star so bright nobody had ever seen anything like it, and then these rulers came with stuff so expensive Mary wondered what they'd do with it.

And she pondered it and stored it up to treasure in her heart.

So I'm doing a lot of pondering. I'm pondering all our traditions and how nice it is to have ornaments that tell stories, like the paper angel made back when you or your child was in kindergarten. I'm thinking about the concept of "the Christmas spirit" or "Christmas cheer" and I'm wondering if it can be separated from a consumerist culture focused on purchasing. What does that mean for the downtrodden, the lonely?

All the pondering eventually leads me back to baby Jesus. The baby who grew up like all children, and learned a trade. Whatever high expectations there were for him, and whatever his fate, he still had to learn what every child has to learn. He had to have someone change his diapers. And no matter how impressive he spoke in the synagogue when his parents lost him at age 12, he wouldn't be doing any miracles for about 30 years. Emmanuel, God with us, just played in the dirt with the other neighborhood kids.

I can't even move beyond my pondering to any solid conclusion to end this post. So perhaps I will conclude by inviting you to spend a little more time pondering in the days leading up to Christmas. To really think about what baby Jesus means to you- and if you're up to it- the world.