Despite my best efforts to be well prepared, I’m heading into Christmas on two wheels again. I’m not sure what the antidote to all the crazy is, but I know what it is not: the parking lot of our city’s shopping mecca forty-eight hours before the holiday. The shirt I’m wearing may say “Holly Jolly Y’all,” but my aggressive driving says something more along the lines of, “Move out of my way before I run over you with this minivan sleigh you fools!”
It’s very festive. And very mature.
Yesterday on my way home from an errand I noticed the roadside Advent scene again. Only this time two nuns were outside setting up another scene behind it: a stable with a shepherd boy and his sheep. Today when we drove by I had the Spouse pull into the driveway so we could get a closer look. And there lingering several feet behind the stable are Mary and Joseph, not yet to the stable, but on their way to Bethlehem. I assume they will move the characters tomorrow evening or Christmas morning to the manger scene.
I love this tangible picture of the gradual coming of Christmas. It’s a moving nativity. And it almost literally stops me in my tracks.
It’s ironic that I would call this blog Suburban Shalom because I am so far from being a person of peace and wholeness. But there would never be any chance of suburban shalom, urban shalom, or even rural shalom apart from the Christmas story. Perfect peace is possible only because God stepped into history to be among us. He is not only a God who is for us. We have a God who was and is… with us.
Thank you for the gift of your time this year. I don’t take for granted the minutes of your day you give up to read a few words here each week. You are a community of sorts to me, and I am grateful for your friendship and the camaraderie we experience over words shared on a screen. I like to tell myself I would still write if no one read these musings. But I fear that isn’t true because what I most enjoy about writing is connecting with you. I tell better stories when I am living a better story alongside you.
From the Spouse, the 6th Grader, the 4th Grader, the 1st Grader, and me…
Merry Christmas! Wishing you love, joy, and peace this season and into the new year!
Merry Christmas Hollie! I have noticed the advent wreath several times this season once you mentioned it. Thank you for pointing it out. Like you it slows me to ponder blessed gift of Jesus and the eternal hope of this season. We will check out the stable on Christmas Day. Enjoy your kiddos because you will blink and they will be grown with families of their own.