Christmas Gong Shows

Forget the Christmas bells a-ringing...
this year resounded with (((gongs)))
and plenty of them!
I'm not sure what I was really expecting. Given the past couple months, I should have read the clues and KNOWN that this Christmas would be different. I guess I was throwing my last threads of hope that something magically would happen on the 24th of December that would make everything I have been going through disappear into the abyss of what we know and understand of the "holiday spirit".
Boy...was I in for a surprise!
and not the kind that you want to find wrapped under your tree!
From armed robbers,
pouring rain,
child meltdowns,
puke,
exploding diapers,
bath oil doubling as shampoo,
unsettled stomaches,...
it was definitely not the peaceful evening I was desperately in need of!
There was a time in the evening where it was only my dad and I sitting at the table eating "family" dinner, and just as I was reaching the point of feeling sorry for myself, I had a minor epiphany...
this is Christmas.
It wasn't about meeting expectations
but meeting a need.
As I thought of all the travelers caught in airports this year due to some wicked weather, I couldn't help but think of the travelers at the first Christmas, called away from their homes by a foreign ruling, into towns with not enough rooms to house them.
Camping out in streets.
In stables.
And I was reminded of the reality that the Prince of Peace came in the midst of chaos,
persecution,
inconvenience,
animals,
shepherds,
jealous rulers,
simplicity.
The Messiah came
not as expected
but as needed.
And His birth brings hope
in the midst of our chaos,
despite our chaos
because of our chaos...
not just in the closing days of December
but every day
throughout the year.

I'm looking forward to the new year,
and the gong shows that will definitely find me out...
but I go being reminded that there will be NOTHING that I will face
that isn't first answered
by the gift in a manager
one chaotic Christmas...