I’m Blessed

This weekend I have been so stuck.  Knut has been around, so there has been an extra adult around which has allowed me to slide a bit.  I may have watched a few seasons of “Gilmore Girls” on Netflix.  I have been a bit paralyzed, out of sheer expectation.

I have such a full week this week.  Looking at my calendar is stressing me out.  Every rule I have for household management and keeping collective sanity is getting broken this week.  There is nothing to cut.  Should we just not go to the kids’ choir concert?  Or maybe it should be Solveig and Ingrid’s birthday party we should skip.  Not to mention not one, not two, but three Christmas “parties/banquets/year end parties” on the schedule this week, each promising to be lots of fun.  Fun, but another piece of busy-ness this week.

I’m told I should be working on some sort of Christmas baking too, soon, which hasn’t started yet.  I may have to delegate some of that to the kids.

I’m so frustrated with myself because I worked so hard last year to make room for advent.  This season is actually about the birth of Christ.  I want my family to celebrate that.  I want my focus to be on Him.  I’m failing at that this year.  We are perpetually one day behind in our advent readings this month.  We try to catch up, but then we miss the next day.  Every day has been a 2-reading day, when we actually remember.

I don’t want Advent to be an afterthought.  I want it to be the main event.

I was working last night on a devotional to give to the Women’s Ministries Christmas banquet at church tonight.  It won’t be long, and it’s not a big deal.  I actually like doing that.  Anyway, it actually made me stop and reflect a bit on Advent, without the hurried “catch up” feeling in my stomach.

I was thinking out the idea of the birth of Jesus.  The incarnation certainly boggles the mind, but I was actually thinking about birth.  Every woman who has been pregnant can relate to the stress of the last few weeks of pregnancy.  There’s the discomfort, the constant moving within, the skin pulled tight, and most of all, the constant wondering if it was “time.”  I don’t know about you, but I always wonder if it was “time” for each of my births right up until about an hour before the baby came.  My kids liked to keep me guessing.

As I was thinking about the rush of the season, and the tendency for the moms in families to take the bulk of the present buying and wrapping, and food preparing, and wondering “why is that?” that we women put so much pressure on ourselves during this season…

it dawned on me that Christmas holds a special spot in my heart, not only because of the beauty of the season and the love of the music, and the joy of the lights.

God chose to enter this world through a woman.

Christmas was delivered through a woman.

I don’t mean to get into a battle of the sexes, or dare say that males or females hold more weight or significance in God’s eyes.  That’s not my intent at all.  I just find it ironic that women often hold the weight of Christmas duties…which is what it was like in the beginning.  I doubt any woman has ever felt Christmas weigh on her like it did for Mary.

What an honor.  What a privilege.

Please don’t establish doctrine of duties through my words, but pause and reflect what an honor it is to share the message of Christmas with your children.  You get to set the stage for the message.

And just like birth: Christmas is going to come whether or not we are ready.

We can scurry about our house, nesting for this birth, crossing off to-do lists and driving our spouses crazy as our stress hits the roof.

Sounds like the 3rd trimester, days before birth.  Right?

It’s easy to forget how hard those last few weeks before birth are.  When the stress hits, and we start tearing up, “It’s not all going to get done” and you’re not sure which ball will get dropped, just remember what you are doing, and what this is all for.

It’s about a baby.

A baby that’s coming whether or not we’re ready.  A baby that we know will change everything about our lives.  Life cannot possibly be the same after this birth.  It’s about anticipation and expectation.

When you are feeling overwhelmed this season, and hit that point where you think you just can’t do it all, remember God picked you to deliver this message to your family.  He picked you.  It’s one of the biggest honors he can bestow.  It may feel like the only way to survive this season is to have a very organized calendar and to-do list, and remove all toddlers from the house.  The truth is, Christmas will come, like it or not.  We can’t hold it back with our disorganization and over-scheduling.  The way to survive it is to fix our spiritual eyes on what is actually happening.  Breathe.  Visualize.  We must keep our eyes fixed on that baby.  We must pause and take delight in the sheer thought of this baby.  Oh my goodness, a baby was born, and came to turn this world upside-down…or maybe it was to turn it right-side-up.

Either way, this baby changed everything.

Let the scurrying stop now.  Let the distractions and stress fall away.  We all know that “when mama’s not happy, nobody is happy.” Let me add to that, when mama stands in awe, they all stand in awe… or at least look to see what stopped this busy, crazy woman in her tracks.

I get to deliver this message.  What an honor.  What a privilege.

I’m blessed.