Posts Tagged: Luke’s Gospel

“Beyond Currier and Ives and Hallmark”


I love Currier and Ives winter/Christmas scenes.  They are very lovely.  I love the feel-good Christmas stories on the Hallmark channel.  I don’t actually watch them very often.  I am prone to cry, my nose gets all stuffed up, and I get a sinus headache.  But I do like them.

However, my own life is neither a Currier and Ives print nor a Hallmark Christmas special.  My life is messy.

Now, don’t get me wrong.  There is a lot that is right with my life.  I have a wife whom I love, and who loves me.  We have paid off our house and cars.  We have a little money coming in, and a little money in the bank.  We are, in fact incredibly wealthy, compared to probably 98 % of the people in the world.

We have good friends and we have a little dog who lights up our lives, just by being her canine self.  We have things that we love to do, some of which even make us a little money.

Still, my life is messy.  My mind is messy.  My emotions are messy.  My sleeping and work areas are messy.  As my grandmother used to say to me, “You’re a mess!”  (For those of you who think that grandmas are always on your side, I’ve got news for you: It ain’t necessarily so!)

And thanks to me, my wife’s life is messy, due to no fault of hers.

So, as this Currier-and-Ives-Hallmark-Channel season reaches its most feverish pitch, I comfort myself with one simple thought: According to Luke’s birth account, Jesus was born in a barn.

What?!  That’s no place for a baby to be born!

No, it isn’t, and if I had been making up a story about the birth of a king, I don’t think I would have made this story-telling move.  But Luke makes precisely that move: Jesus, the King, was born in a barn.

I struggle to believe it sometimes, but there it is: a king, The King, born in a very messy, humble place.  I grew up on a farm.  Rest assured that even the cleanest barn isn’t—clean, that is.

So, for all of you who are alienated from your families, for all of you who wish you were alienated from your families, for all of you who have lost a loved one recently, or are afraid you will soon, for all of you who are alone, for all of you who feel hopeless on this 25th day of December, 2018, for all of you who just wish the day was over, I say this:

Merry Christmas!  I can say this, not because of Currier and Ives, not because of Hallmark, but because of a King who made a humble entrance, rather than a grand, royal one.  I can say this because Jesus is always willing to be born in messy places, messy places like my heart and your heart.

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