The Nativity Story – Christmas Wasn’t Pretty

Most of us would not want to trade lives with our heroes.

Even the fictional ones have hard lives. Batman’s parents were murdered when he was a child and now his single-minded war on crime keeps him from enjoying any long-term relationship or having a family. Spider-Man works for an overbearing boss, serves an ungrateful public, and constantly falls ill. Harry Potter spends each summer with relatives who hate and abuse him and spends the rest of the year hoping Voldemort won’t kill him.

Then there are the real ones. Would anyone really want to share the same challenges, scorn, disappointments and heartbreaks suffered by Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Amelia Earhart, Harriet Tubman, Nelson Mandela, or others who paved the way for us to enjoy certain freedoms? Yet their sacrifices led to the success that made them heroes, and where would we be without them?

I just read a Christmas devotional about Mary, which pointed out how almost all of us – myself included – miss the point of Christmas. When Mary was chosen to be the mother of Christ, it was a great honor and blessing. But it wouldn’t have felt like one. Not when everyone learned that the “virgin Mary” was suddenly pregnant. Do you think her neighbors would have believed her story of a miracle birth? Do you think she would have kept her reputation, and all of her friends?

The angel that visited Mary told her she was blessed and had found favor with God. He didn’t say her life would be easy, or even happy.

My family’s had a really rough year. Rougher than most of our recent rough years. There were times we wanted to give up on the things we’re working toward, because it’s just too hard with no relief in sight. But we don’t. Because we know we’re trying to make things better for our family and for others. We’ve also been blessed by family and friends along the way when we needed their help and encouragement to keep going.

And still, when we’re finally coming to a resting place where we can take a relaxing breath, we get hit with another crisis. When we feel we should be appreciated for all of our hard work and sacrifices, we get criticized and falsely accused.

I wonder how Mary felt nearly a year later, on that special night. After being looked down on for her “miracle birth”. After being ridiculed for claiming an angel spoke to her. After being rejected at first by her fiancé for appearing to betray him.

I wonder how she felt that night in Bethlehem, ready to give birth and forced to travel by camel to a distant city. Only to learn that the census had brought in so many travelers that there was no place for her and Joseph to lie down.

By the way, you know that kindhearted innkeeper we always see in Christmas pageants, who lets Mary and Joseph stay in his barn? I just read the Bible account in Luke – he’s not in there. Nobody took pity on this couple and went out of their way to shelter them. That’s why they sought refuge in a stable – as in, a barn – and Mary laid her baby in a manger – as in, an animal trough.

It was the only place they could find, or sneak into.

The Christmas story wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t convenient. It wasn’t inspiring or holly jolly.

The whole point of Christmas isn’t that God came to make our lives shiny and beautiful. It’s that he came.

Into the dirt and grime of our hard lives. Into the tough breaks and bad reputations and broken relationships that we call life. God wasn’t afraid of our messes or our dysfunctional families or our poor choices. He knew how messed up we are – how hard and frightening and disappointing our lives are. And he came, anyway, to be with us, and to make a way for us to be with him forever. His name, “Immanuel”, literally means, “God with us.”

When you look at your hard life this Christmas, remember you’re not the only one going through terrible times. Remember that the sacrifices you make might mean trouble for you, but might make a world of difference for someone else. Remember that God loves you and has a plan, and you have a purpose.

And remember that you’re not alone.

God is with us.

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