Merry Christmas! 

The Sorrentino family is having a rather strange yet wonderful Christmas this year. We are celebrating our daughter Sarah and her husband Ted’s very first Christmas as husband and wife in their new home here in Atlanta ~ Wonderful! And if you read last month’s JoyNews, you know that my husband and I have also moved (temporarily) into our townhouse in the city. Since we put almost everything we own in storage, we have no Christmas decorations in our house at all ~ Strange!

The great thing though, about celebrating Christmas without the stuff, is that it really makes you focus on what this season is all about. But I have to admit, I needed a bit of a reminder this week, as I was feeling a bit blue about my non-Christmas surroundings. So, I pulled out my very first JoyNews from December 2010 (Yes, it’s been 5 years since I started doing this! Time flies…) called “Christmas Without a Tree.” It was the perfect reminder for me, so I thought I would share it with all of you again. Perhaps it’s a reminder that you need on this Christmas Eve as well.

Christmas Without a Tree

This Christmas Lord I want to focus on You.  I want to forget about putting up a Christmas tree and “decking the halls” and instead, turn my eyes, my heart, my study, my devotion and my love to You – the God-man – the very incarnation of the Creator in human form, coming as a completely dependent new born baby.

And not born to royalty in some palace with maids and servants to attend You, but in the most lowly, smelly, cold, dirty place ~ a barn, with cow dung, bugs, and filthy hay.  You God, the King of Kings, came to worse than the slums of this earth.  You made your “grand entrance” in something akin to being born to a street person under a bridge! 

Yet that night, as You made the humble, painful passage from your warm cocoon inside of Mary’s body, to breathe for the first time the life sustaining air that You created, and we humans so depend on ~ that very moment, all the angels in heaven sang songs of rejoicing!  The long awaited plan was being fulfilled!  You would finally save this brood of sinners. 
 
But even in the perfect salvation plan, You didn’t choose to call attention to yourself and perform a flashy “saving show!”  You waited.  You grew up as any child does, with parents You learned to obey, friends You played with, girls who had “crushes” on You, household chores You were responsible for, and teachers who helped You learn to read and write.  You studied the scriptures, grew, and were prepared (in human terms) for the mission You were sent here to accomplish.
 
For 30 years You stayed “under the radar” ~ out of the public eye, living completely as a human.  And then finally it was time.  Why did the Father choose to wait so long?  In those days 30 was pretty old, wasn’t it?  Didn’t kids get married and start their own “careers” and families in their teens back then?  Oh, I know You had your first carpentry job with your earthly Dad, making something from nothing (kind of like You do with us!).  But You waited another 15 years ~ almost another whole lifetime back then ~ from the age of 15 when You probably started your carpentry career, until 30 before You had a “midlife” career change!  I wonder why the Father chose to use only three years in your miraculous life to teach us and show us “in person” who He is.
 
I suppose it didn’t matter, because in that brief time You taught us how to live.  You turned the religious and political world on its ear.  You prepared a group of unlikely men to continue your work here on earth.  You showed us the Father by being His very image in human form.  What more could You have done for us in 4, 5, 10 or even 20 years? 

You healed the sick, raised the dead, and calmed raging storms.  You challenged the religious teachings of the time and taught us to respect our leaders.  You loved sinners and rebuked rulers.  You turned our world upside down in just three short years! 
 
And then You died for us ~ for me.  You took the punishment for my sins and the sin of all mankind, from Adam to the very last person ever to be born in this world.  You broke the power of evil.  You crushed Satan and sealed his fate.  You won the war.  But even that was done in a humble ~ fully human ~ totally painful and despicable way!  Your humble beginnings were nothing compared to the horrendous, humiliating death You chose to endure for me! 
 
Why?  Why didn’t You just let them kill You quickly for our sins and get it over-with?  Why did You choose to let them strip You and beat You and spit on You and march You through the streets, with sinful humans cheering and shouting and yelling for your death! 

I know it was to show us more of who You are ~ humble ~ a “man of sorrows” ~ willing to endure anything to save the ones You love.  Even rejection and total separation from the Person You had been completely united with from eternity past ~ a bond so intimate we can’t even comprehend it.  You chose to let your Father, your Love, turn away from You in disgust.  You took the shame and guilt and remorse and ugliness and evil of all of my sins, and those of every human that ever lived or will live, upon yourself.  You went from being God to being the very essence of sin ~ so I could be called righteous, a princess, a “child of God”. 
 
This is who You are.  This is who God is.  “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” 

Oh Lord, let me dwell on that from now through Christmas.  And let this Christmas without a tree, without the lights, without the holiday trappings, be the most glorious Christmas ever ~ because You will be my light!

We’d love to hear YOUR Christmas stories this year! Be sure to click on the Comments link at the top of this page to share how God showed up for you and your family.

A Blessed & Merry Christmas to you all!

Mary Sorrentino