In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
– Luke 1:26-33

Christmas is an invitation to embrace things neither easily explained nor well understood. It is about wonder, at least at some level. I found a prayer I wrote a few years ago, one I have found to necessitate my own revisiting. Perhaps, if you too are looking to recapture the wonder of Christmas, this prayer might likewise start you on that path.

Father God, Christmas; although marketed, packaged, sanitized, and tamed; is still unmistakably full of wild and bizarre mystery. I’m sure I don’t understand all of what is in the Christmas story: visitations from angels, a star in the heavens, visions, and unexpected pregnancies (one of which is shrouded in a fog of controversy). Help me to embrace what has begun in Jesus at the first Christmas, not in spite of the things I don’t fully understand, but in them, even through them. Lord, bring about wonder from curiosity and hope from mystery. Help me to marvel at all the inexplicable things at Christmas. Might I have the heart of Luke who “carefully investigated everything” – especially the unlikely and beautiful mystery of Christmas. Amen.

See you Sunday,

Jeff