Forget Pretty – A Christmas Thought

There is a snow forcast in my town which reminded me of this old post which I am resubmitting.

It is about 28 degrees in my neighborhood.  It is an old neighborhood with old houses that have settled and when I first submitted this post, and  before I did some fabulous housing updates, at least they are fabulous in my mind, but when I first submitted it, I went downstairs and I discovered some very cold air coming through the front door like it owned the place. It  was so cold that I thought, “Forget pretty”, let me plug this hole up, so I cut up some old cloth and started filling in the cracks.  Like the woman pictured in the blizzard, it wasn’t pretty but it did the job. In the summer she is in her finest attire, but when the temperature dips to single digits, her need to be pretty gives way to her need to be warm.

Human need often causes us to forget pretty and do what we gotta to do. The naitivity scenes that are displayed at Christmas time are undoubtedly much prettier than the original event that inspired it. Compared to the rooms in the Inn, the stable was not pretty and surely no place to give birth. God said, “Forget pretty.” He removed His regal robe to be born in a stable, kept warm by rags used to wipe the animal with.  In our hemisphere, it was the first time He forgot pretty but it wouldn’t be the last.

As you know, the crucifixion was not pretty. They taunted Him. They spat on Him. They accused Him. Isaiah said that He was wounded. He died. It wasn’t pretty but it did the job, because on the third day He rose with all power in His hands which includes power to forgive sin and pardon the sinner.  I thank God because when my own darkness was made darker by multiple mistakes, bad decisions,  He forgot pretty and lifted me out of an ugly spirituality and brought me to the brightness that He intends for all of life.  No wonder we sing:

”Hark, the herald, angels sing,

Jesus, the light of the world,

Glory to the new born Kind,

Jesus, the light of the world.”

Christmas is about God and what He did for us in Christ.

Merry Christmas!