Is life getting a little more hectic than usual around your house? Are you looking for just the right place to set up your tree? Perhaps spaceor tradition dictates the spot or maybe you appreciate a different look each year. Have you retrieved all the decorations from their eleven-month hiding spots and hung greenery in all the right places? How about the shopping? Are your gifts all hidden away until the big day? Have you finished the wrapping? Do you have a special menu planned and dishes assigned to various family members or friends? Have you baked cookies for everyone at the office? Have the kids made all their wishes known to Santa and had their pictures taken at the mall?

And can you tell me, please, what does all this have to do with a little baby being born in a stable over two thousand years ago? How have all our traditions associated with this very special holiday celebration become so beautifully wrapped in colorful paper topped with shiny ribbons?

I’m neither a Scrooge nor the Grinch. I love Christmas and all the family time that goes with it…the food, the gifts, the music. It’s a beautiful time of year. However, the older I get, the more aware I become of the disconnect between our time-honored, faith-filled traditions and the picture painted by the secular world we live in. Advent can make a real difference in the way we view Christmas if we approach it wisely and set aside quiet moments to focus on Jesus. It’s important to remember that Christ occupies six of the letter spaces in the name of the holiday we celebrate, CHRIST-mas. That’s two-thirds of the letters. How much time are we devoting to Him as we celebrate? Can we lay aside the hype of the season long enough to examine the message of Christmas?

The white space between Bible verses is fertile soil for questions.

One can hardly read scripture without whispering, “I wonder….”

Max Lucado, He Still Moves Stones

None of us can really imagine the questions and fears that might lay heavy upon our hearts if we were a young teenage girl who just encountered an angel. An angel who brought a message that she would bear a son. She knew it was impossible and yet the angel convinced her that it was true. The Holy Spirit had created a boy child within her, and she was to call him Jesus. She accepted the task set before her because she was a faith-filled girl, but how many questions ran through her mind, the first being how to tell Joseph. He would be so disappointed in her and how could he possibly believe that she hadn’t been with another man? Yet when he was told, he accepted her explanation even before the angel came to him with confirmation of her unbelievable story.

How would her community behave toward her? Would they try to influence Joseph against her? Would they suggest punishments appropriate to the beliefs of the time? Would they shun her? We know that she went to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, but that’s just about all we really know. Surely she went because of family ties and wanting to spend some quality time with this relative who also carried a special child, but could she have wanted to separate herself for a while from the members of her community who might not be kind or understanding toward her? Who are we kidding? Her life could have actually been in danger. Those early months of her pregnancy must have been filled with wonder and awe at having been chosen to carry the Son of God within her but also colored by doubts, questions, and fears about this great mystery and the reactions from those around her.

If you’re a mom, what were your thoughts and concerns about the child you carried? You were likely confident the birth would happen in a sterile hospital environment. Mary was not. And even though she didn’t know God’s plan for her to deliver in a common stable far from home, she likely believed her child would be welcomed into the world among family. You probably spent time shopping or making the necessities for your baby’s first months of life but Mary spent a great deal of her time traveling and fending off verbal abuse and may have, at times, feared for her safety. We’ll never know exactly what Mary experienced. We have only cultural conjecture to guide us.

I think God intentionally left gaps in all the stories of the Bible because he wanted us to fill them with our own faith-filled concepts. He wanted to offer all His children an opportunity to trust in His good timing for everything in our lives. He wants us to trust in Him but He gave us the opportunity to ask questions, to develop an ongoing dialog with Him. How close do you want Him to be?

The Virgin Birth is much more than a Christmas story; it is a picture of how close Christ will

come to you. The first stop on his itinerary was a womb…..He issues a Mary-level

invitation to all his children. “If you’ll let me, I’ll move in!”

Max Lucado, Next Door Savior