The kids and I needed some ingredients to bake our Christmas cookies. We went to a little store a few miles back the road that sits beside an Amish school. You could hear the laughter of the children in the school yard as they played. As we drove past I realized something seemed to be missing. There was a sense of togetherness and what seemed to be a set up of a game (a group of children on one side and a group on the other) yet there was no ball, no jungle gym, no jump rope, nothing! I looked again to see what it was they were doing and I noticed they were tossing rocks! The simplicity of this brought a smile to my face. There was so much joy and laughter coming from that school yard with a simple game involving a simple rock that it was hard to believe. I could not stop thinking of that as I went about my day.
If we think to the birth of Christ, as miraculous as it was, it was also very simple. Mary was an ordinary girl who was chosen to carry the Messiah and she married an ordinary man. They traveled to an ordinary town and she gave birth in an ordinary stable. She wrapped the newborn King in ordinary swaddling cloths. This is so different than our world today, even more so at Christmastime. I believe God intentionally brought Jesus to the earth in a humble way. I believe it is also something that we need to be very intentional in placing our thoughts toward as we celebrate. I pray that this Christmas you step back from the gifts, the cookies, the rush, the travels, and so on and take in the simplicity of the season. The smile on a child’s face, the innocent and pure joy in their laughter, the twinkle in the eye of a grandparent as their family gathers near, the warm embraces of missed family members, a special kiss underneath the mistletoe, the words of thanks and encouragement, the baby Jesus in the nativity scene, the angel on top of your tree… don’t let these simple things pass you by. These are the things that God sees, the things that truly celebrate the birth of our Savior
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