Dear Jesus,
As I write this, Christmas is a few days off still. My logic brain says that many of the things I do to prepare for and enjoy the Christmas season aren’t actually markers of your birth, that likely was at another time of year, but thank you for being flexible with us humans.
Thank you for adapting to what we need and want. Thank you especially for letting my messy thoughts reach you and for hearing me through it all. Thank you for an excuse to bring the outside into my house and to reconnect with your creation; I do love the smell of my Christmas tree. Thank you for friends and family that care for me and bring me joy from just being in their company.
As I enjoy this cozy time of year, I think of what it would be like to physically have you here, not as a Savior but as one of those friends that care. I can feel peace settle in, knowing that my floor wouldn’t have to be sparkling for you to feel welcome. You would pitch in on a kitchen creation that may or may not turn out as planned. The conversation would ebb and flow without the expectation that every moment be filled with deep meaning.
Help me bring this grace to this season when I go other places and in my house. I’m struck as I write that the stable wasn’t a shameful place to be. It was a place. It was where you were. And that made it home. I do like our modern sensibilities that bring the animals into the scene and make them part of the family that welcomed you. Were there dust motes flying through the air? Absolutely, but that wasn’t the important part of the scene. People were tired and yet still together. I am sure that not everything was perfect, and yet you were there and didn’t ask for it to be different.
I am not really any different from past humans in thinking that I am insufficient. But when I think of what gift to ask you for this Christmas, I should not be embarrassed to ask. Even if what I’m asking for isn’t huge, like world peace, but is something big to me.
So here it is: please help me bring your presence with me this year in a way that makes people more comfortable. Not just that they feel loved, but that they know that things can just be and you are there. That you enjoy just chilling with us and doing what we do. That this season of “God with us” starts with me inviting you along. That, especially when things are messy, you can bring peace and let my feet be the carriers of that peace.
With a cookie in hand,
Jennifer
Jennifer Helbley works at La Sierra University in Chemistry and in Sustainability and finds joy in getting together with friends to do simple things, like playing games; she would love to pet your dog.