Christmas and Letting Go

What is it?

What is the earmark of Christmas that snags at your heart every year?

Is it the idea of a king, birthed in a barn? A king, who chose to serve. 

Perhaps it's the attraction, the beaming star in the sky that sent mere shepherds and wise scholars, for months, to this boy. This Jesus. Sent from a star. 

Or for me, this year, I'm stuck at the father. This God who loves me so entirely, that He looses HIS son, as human flesh, to save me, His daughter. 

I am a parent now. I feel the pain of children taunting my own kids. I run when I hear their cries for help. I mend their scrapes and bandage their blood, and it overwhelms my heart when they experience pain I can't immediately soothe. 

And God. And God, the father, daddy in heaven and now on earth, He watches king Jesus birthed into dirt and muck. He watches His helpless son, laid in manger by mother Mary. He watches for years, the taunting and scrapes and pain, and He can't...He chooses not to step in...

Because He saw the beginning from the end. 

You/I/We were/are worth his only son's suffering because He saw it all, and He saw redemption in that frail baby made of skin and bones. 

I get to step in and touch my babes and wrap them in my arms, but He let His son go...for me. 

What is this love? 

Who is this king of all kings?

How consumed am I with this kind of infinite love. 

I see this Christmas as "letting go". Freedom means letting go, even when it hurts, even when the pain is excruciating,  knowing that this dance is going to be worth it all. 

He let go of his son. And his son redeemed it all. 

Merry Christmas! I'm praying you catch an image of the manger today. I'm praying it goes deep and you experience the infinite love sent through a babe. 

Merry Christmas!