Littered With Decorations

My neighborhood is littered with holiday decorations. There’s something for each and every taste. Do you like penguins? How about two of them (father and son) riding on a sled? Look no further than my front yard. Leg lamps? The first house you see as you pull into our circle proudly displays his lamp each holiday season. There are also the usual suspects - Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty - all of whom have been living in my neighborhood since the weekend after Thanksgiving. I typically take a walk a few nights a week and December nights are definitely the brightest nights of the year. I like the lights and the air-filled decorations, but they don’t usually remind me of Jesus and his birth.

For some reason I moved my walk to the morning instead of the evening today. It was bright, but not because of the decorations. Our penguins were resting. Santa and Rudolph were reduced to a red and brown blob. The leg lamp was dimmed. But what I saw, two unintentional decorations, lying in our street, moved me to worship and a deeper appreciation of the love of God given to us in the gift of his Son.

The two decorations were lying about twenty feet from each other. Both probably thrown from a car window. Probably not from the same car window, but I guess it’s possible.

The first was a fully filled dirty diaper lying open in the gutter. It was disgusting. And the thought hit my mind. God wore diapers. He came, willingly came, and partook in behaviors and actions that are mundane, and routine, and simply gross. Yet it wasn’t the dirtiness of a diaper that we needed deliverance from. It was the darkness of our hearts. I’ve got to admit my reactions to my own son’s diapers is stronger at times than my hatred of my own sin. As humble as the Son of God is to have become a vulnerable baby, it pales in comparison to him becoming sin so that we could become the righteousness of God. And so, seeing a diaper lying in the road reminded me of Christmas.

The second decoration was a pregnancy test lying face down in the gutter. We’ve seen our share of those tests over the past few years. After taking one, we held onto it and looked at our results more than a few times. Never once did it occur to us to throw it out of a car window. I imagine, and could certainly be wrong, but I imagine someone who throws one out onto the street isn’t particularly wanting to be pregnant. And as I saw the test lying there, I was reminded of an unwanted pregnancy that led to the redemption of the world. It made me grateful for Mary and Joseph and for the rest of the cast of characters in the great Christmas story. Mostly it amazed me at the beautiful plan of God to have the Savior be born to the Virgin Mary. To be fully God and fully man and reconnect the glory of God with the brokenness of man.

There’s a lot of flair flaring around right now. Sledding penguins and all. Most of it leaves me wanting more. Yet, seeing two ordinary things lying in a gutter reminded me of the glory of Christmas - the promise that God has come and nothing will ever be ordinary again.

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

If a picture is worth a thousand words, I'd like to know what the exchange rate is on a picture mixed with a concise quote.

I read this quote while preparing for my Christmas sermon. As soon as I did, my mind rushed to a picture my mom took of Andrew last night.

"When Jesus is asked who is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, he reaches into the crowd and pulls out a child with a cheek full of bubblegum and eyes full of whatever a child's eyes are full of and says unless you become like that, don't even bother to ask." Frederick Buechner