O ye, beneath life's crushing load,
Whose forms are bending low
Who toil along the climbing way
With painful steps and slow.
Look now for glad and golden hours
Come swiftly on the wing
O rest beside the weary road
And hear the angels sing. (Edmund Sears)
For my yoke is easy; And my burden is light. (Matthew 11:30)
I love Christmas Eve. The church is decked. The hymns are beautiful. Christmas is upon us whether we are ready or not. There is no more making ready for Jesus. No more wrapping of gifts. No more trips to the post office. No more swiping of the credit card. The baby comes and again He makes His home in our hearts.
And it is just the beginning...
Because then there is Christmas day. It is full of wide-eyed wonder. The anticipation of weeks and weeks finally arrives. Families gather and presents are presented. Gifts are given and gifts are received and unwrapped. And after the gifts are opened, we prepare food, we assemble toys, we clean up, we do the dishes...and, then, the beautiful hymns come reverberating through our head, "O rest beside the weary road and hear the angels sing."
But there is no time to listen, let alone to rest beside the weary road.
Soon, we will be boxing up the Christmas decorations. The season of Christmas will slide into Epiphany. The Christmas tree will come down and the elf will go back on the shelf. We will drift into ordinary time and back to work and our forms will, once again, be bending low...
And I am convinced that all of this why our Savior came. God wants more for us in life than painful steps and slow. God desires for us to see the light and experience the wonder and enjoy our families gathering and gifts given and received, and not just at Christmas, but all year long. And if it sounds exhausting, it's not that we don't desire Jesus to come and live in our hearts, we just realize that we don't have the time and resources to make Christmas happen more than one day a year. Not like this. In our labor, we miss the promise and the real Christmas magic: The yoke is easy and the burden is light and glad and golden hours come swiftly on the wing.
We can do Christmas differently. My wife and I are already talking about simplifying next year. We are getting rid of some old stuff, and God has snowed us in. I believe it is God's way of telling us to rest beside the weary road and let the Savior come again in to our overwrought hearts. In fact, it is my prayer for me, our family, your family, and Christ's church to dare to take time in the midst of it all, to stop, to wonder, to see the beauty, and hear the angels sing.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
No comments:
Post a Comment