A Renewed Perspective on Christmas

This last week and a half my kids and I have been reading the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson, and it's been such a fun book. The kids love it and it has lead to some great conversations. It's a story about the Herdmans, who are terrible no good kids and are always causing trouble around the town. Well through a turn of events the Herdmans wind up being cast for the major roles in the annual Christmas pageant and everyone is preparing themselves for the worst.
As I was reading the last chapter this afternoon with my class I was overwhelmed with the message of the book. My sweet fourth graders watched as my eyes teared up and we talked about the impact of this little event, which seemed so insignificant and looked like nothing special.
I just wanted to quote a bit of the last chapter, I felt it was a perfect illustration of what I've been thinking about the last few days.

"It suddenly occurred to me that this was just the way it must have been for the real Holy Family, stuck away in a barn by people who didn't care what happened to them. They couldn't have been very neat and tidy either, but more like this Mary and Joseph (Imogene's veil was cockeyed as usual, and Ralph's hair stuck out all around his ears). Imogene had the baby doll but she wasn't carrying it the way she was supposed to, craddled in her arms. She had it slung up over her shoulder, and before she put it in the manger she thumped it twice on the back.
I heard Alice gasp and she poked me. 'I don't think it's very nice to burp the baby Jesus,' she whispered, 'as if he had colic.' Then she poked me again. 'Do you suppose he could have had colic?'
I said. 'I don't know why not,' and I didn't. He could have had colic, or been fussy, or hungry like any other baby. After all, that was the whole point of Jesus- that he didn't come down on a cloud like something out of 'Amazing Comics', but that he was born and lived...a real person."

The story goes on, and it's obvious that the Herdman's have learned the true meaning of Christmas.
This Christmas season I have been thinking alot about how I got here in the Phils, and what had led me to move across the world, away from everyone I love. This small event, which seems so unimportant has had such an impact on our lives. Mary and Joseph were so young, and being forced away from their home, only to be put into a stable or cave when there wasn't any room, and with the knowledge that they were not only raising their first son, but the Messiah, their Savior.
Sometimes I think, why did God have them move so far away from home? Why was it important that He be born in a dirty animal house? But this just shows the humble beginning of a man who was fully God but gave his life for us so that we might live.
This holiday I am having a small humble Christmas (unfortunately not by choice) but none the less it has pushed me to realize the immensity of the gift that we have been given. Emmanual: God is with us, no matter how and where I celebrate the birth of Jesus, He is with me. I am comforted by this fact, that even when I feel so alone and there's no family around He is with me. Emmanuel.

~Merry Christmas~

Love, meg