Trusting the Wonderings of Christmas

I wonder why…
     Why did Father do it the way He did?
          Why a baby?
               Why a carpenter and young girl who weren't even married yet?
                    Why the last available space in Bethlehem?
                         Why only 33 years on earth and only 3 years of ministry?

I've been listening to Winter Snow, by Audrey Assad and Chris Tomlin (check out this beautiful video of the song by Erik Rutgrink on youtube) and reading through Margaret Feinberg's Unwrapping Advent… trying to get my head around the miracle of Christmas and …
     … I AM AMAZED BY THE WONDER OF IT ALL …

I think the question I am wrestling with the most today is…
     … How did such a minor event in the grand scheme of things chronologically (only really 3 years of the calendar) have such an INCREDIBLE impact on the course of history? …

This Jesus, that came to earth in such a quiet humble way, has impacted
the course of time more than any other person ever …
    … about that I wonder…
          … and yet I trust…

I put my full trust and confidence in this baby and in the carpenter and the young girl…
     … I trust the manger and the ministry…
          …I don't get it… I don't understand all the whys… Why did Father do it the way He did?… but no matter the whys, I choose to trust the wonder.

Keeping X in Christmas

Been wrestling again… This time with the whole Xmas versus Christmas and Happy Holidays versus Merry Christmas deal… I think once again we, as Christ followers, are fighting the wrong battle…

Walk with me here for a bit… "X" is the Greek letter "Chi" which is short for Cristos meaning Christ… So in reality Xmas is Christmas.

Happy Holidays tells me the person sending the greeting is possibly not a follower of Jesus, so it opens the door for me to bless them with a smile and a sincere "Merry Christmas".

The wrestling for me comes when Christ followers get all up in arms about these relatively insignificant issues while succumbing to the consumerist mentality that secular society has forced on this holy holiday and are so concerned with Black Friday and Cyber Monday that they forget about JESUS humble, awe inspiring, wondrous birth.  I mean GOD coming to this earth as one of us… one of His own creation… so that we can be saved from the mess we've made for ourselves!!  And we are so focused on the best deal or the fact that someone replaces the English spelling of Christ with the Greek abbreviation that we totally forget about the baby.

AND if someone is unknowingly or even intentionally wishing "happy holidays!" or writing "Merry Xmas!" in an anti-Christ manner, don't you think we should be should be more concerned about their souls than the way they are celebrating the holiday…. hmmm? Just something to think about… It's deeper than this surface issue… It's a matter of the heart.

I hope your holiday is happy and you are truly able to focus on X this Christmas… The baby born as a man for the salvation of the multitudes… the GREATEST gift of all!