DISCLAIMER: Before reading this you need to listen to the song "Winter Snow" by Chris Tomlin and Audrey Assad.
I haven't written in a while. I start with that mostly as an apology to myself. And to God. The past few months of my life have felt like an inconsistent vacillation between fast forward and slow motion because of the incredible amount of highs and lows I've experienced. Insert generic, super unhelpful *that's life* quote here. I feel like this blog is about to be moderately to severely unorganized, but I'm not going to dwell on it too much and you shouldn't either.
The past few months of my life have been both externally and internally transformative. I graduated college, split up with my boyfriend of 4 years, got my dream job of teaching 11th grade English, and I will soon not only be moving out on my own, but to a different city. What could be stressful about that right?
Oh wait I forgot it's Christmastime too. Crap.
This is my predicament.
The past few days I've been in a funk because I keep focusing on things like signing up for health insurance and buying a couch that doesn't cost more than my car, but it's Jesus' birthday. Like THE Jesus. But this is the same story we hear every year - "Keep Christ in Christmas." "Remember the reason for the season." It's a broken-record issue.
But this was exactly the state of the Earth when God gave us the first and most perfect Christmas gift in the most humble and peaceful manner. In the song, Assad sings "you could've come like a mighty storm with all the strength of a hurricane" - and isn't it true? God gave us the one and only perfect human who would save us from our sins and give us eternal life via a 13(ish)-year-old poor virgin girl into a barn. There were no trumpets or spot lights or hype videos? And part of me wants to be like, "God what were you thinking? Why would anyone believe in you from a man who was born in a barn? Did you not think this one through?" But, like always, God had a reason that I don't claim to understand fully, but maybe partially.
Think about the song again. Isn't this the effect Jesus has on all of us? Isn't this the purpose of Jesus? God didn't give us Jesus to add to the noise of our lives. He was given to us to set the world straight - because we're idiots - and to give us everlasting peace from the knowledge and understanding of God's unconditional love. Think about when it snows in Alabama. We walk outside and stand very still to hear the unfamiliar, yet peaceful whisper of snow accumulating on the ground. Or if it happened in the middle of the night, we wake up to a completely new perspective of our once mundane neighborhood. The untouched, uncorrupted, angelic white surfaces cause us to see our world in a completely different light. That dead tree you've been meaning to cut down is now the most picturesque part of the yard. Isn't this the perfect image of Jesus? Just like the perfect, seamless accumulation of snow shows us the purity of nature, Jesus showed humanity the unconditional, gracious, and compassionate love of God that purifies and gives purpose to every single circumstance in our lives.
This image of listening to the snow is exactly what we need, including me, during this holiday season. Take moments to absorb the peace of Christ in whatever form that may be for you.
Merry Christmas!
