the feelings of christmas.

“it doesn’t feel like christmas!” 

i have been hearing this phrase a lot in the weeks leading up to christmas. I have even been saying that myself. there’s no snow. life is crazy. there is so much on my mind.  there are just so many things going on in my life that it just doesn’t FEEL like christmas.

but really, what should christmas FEEL like? 

let’s start at the very first christmas because i think christmas should be more than a feeling. i bet that on that first christmas there wasn’t any snow. and i guarantee that Mary and Joseph wished that their life was less crazy and less unpredictable.

 think about it: two normal, human beings that God chose to use. 

  Joseph, a young, normal man, a wonderful yet strange story from his fiancé, seeing an angel in a dream then a decree to go to Bethlehem...

  Mary, a teenager, seeing an angel, the promise of the Messiah, pregnant, an unexpected journey with her fiancé to a new town...

 “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. she wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:6-7)

what were Mary and Joseph feeling that first Christmas? i bet it was a mixture of wonder, awe, humbleness, and thankfulness. these are the feelings that we should feel each christmas. it doesn’t matter if there is snow on the ground. it doesn’t matter if your life is crazy. it doesn’t matter that there is is much on your mind. take a moment and ponder the phenomenal miracle of God coming down to be our Emmanuel, God with us, in the form of a human baby born in a manger.  

i pray that my response to this christmas miracle would be the same as Mary that very first christmas...

“...but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:19)

so even if today doesn’t FEEL like christmas because there is no snow or whatever the reason, remember the feelings that Mary and Joseph felt that first christmas. And take a moment and thank God for becoming a man and being born as a baby to be our Emmanuel. 

Merry Christmas!