When it comes to Christmas, I am one of those people fully entrenched in the Christmas season. It’s a special time of year where lights, glitter, and an obsession with penguins is acceptable. As soon as mid-November hits, I’m ready for Christmas music, movies, and decorations. My mom and I have a Christmas shed that must be unloaded after Thanksgiving so that every nook and cranny in our house can scream Christmas cheer. I obsess over the placement of every ornament on my tree, and create a story in my head for our village so it looks like it’s coming to life. It’s the time of the year where my friends and I carefully cull our cheesy Christmas movie list and set rules for Christmas movie bingo. There’s Christmas cookie decorating with my nieces and nephew, braving crowds to see Christmas lights, lots of shopping, and multiple family celebrations leading up to Christmas day itself.
And yet, for all of my holiday spirit, I find that many times I’m searching for peace during this hectic season. Between family gatherings, cookie making, and all the other activities, I lose what the season is about and have to go searching again. In Matthew chapter 2 we see the Magi searching for “the one who has been born king of the Jews” (vs 2). How did they know to go? As they say, “We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him” (Matthew 2:2). They were watching and waiting, and knew when it was time to go searching.
A few years ago, I found a Christmas book that helps remind me of the focus of Christmas and has become a favorite of mine to read each year. It’s about a mouse, named Mortimer*, who goes in search of a better place to live. He finds the perfect little house, but there are a bunch of statues in his new home, and a baby in the warm bed lined with straw, so he moves them all out. Each night, when he goes back to his new house, the statues are all back and the baby has returned to his bed. Finally, Mortimer hears the story of the baby and he realizes it’s no ordinary child he’s been kicking out of his bed; it’s the Christ child.
In search of something better for himself, Mortimer didn’t realize he was displacing someone so important. Once he realizes the importance of the baby in the manger, he lugs and tugs and gets all the statues back in place, including putting Jesus back in the manger. Having realized the significance of the manger and what the statue of baby Jesus represented, Mortimer once again goes in search of a new home. However, this time he has help from his new friend and prays, “Jesus, you were born to save the world. Perhaps you could also bring me a home?” Then Mortimer spies another house his size. From his new home (a gingerbread house) he can see the baby Jesus in his manger.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the fun, traditions, and the craziness of this season, but, like the Magi (and Mortimer), each year I find that I am searching for something. Once again I’m searching for what the Advent season really means. I want to put Jesus back in the manger and make him the center of the season, but, truthfully, I don’t always know what that means. Some years I find the meaning of the season in a story, other years I find it in a song or being surrounded with family and friends and celebrating; some years I’m not sure I find it.
Don’t get me wrong–Christmas season will still be filled with decorating cookies, family feasts, and as many horrible Christmas movies as I can fit in, but I hope, like Mortimer, I can put Jesus back in the manger and, like the Magi, I’m able to watch for the right signs so I don’t miss the Beauty that comes with the Advent season.
*Mortimer’s Christmas Manger by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman
Megan McDonough runs Disability Services and the Collaborative Learning Center for La Sierra University. She is also an avid reader and baker, both hobbies well suited for the season.