Tinsel and incense

The kings are wandering. They have not made it to Bethlehem. In my house, they are still in the wrong room, roaming past the Purel and around the Christmas children's books. Mary and Joseph made it today.  They are looking ever so tired.  The kind animals have moved out of the barn, since our set really isn't big enough to house both the Holy Family and the animals.  They are huddled around the Noel candle. There are cookie crumbs everywhere, so any resident mice can have their fill before tonight's required hush.

Hush.

I love the magic of Christmas. I love the blend of deep and rich theology against the starry, sparkly merriment. Christmas celebration echoes its theology elegantly.

This is the night when our Lord humbled himself. God as man. He didn't don a baby costume and pretend. He didn't set His divinity aside for a few years. Fully human. Fully God.

I cannot comprehend it, but I can smile at it.

Today my sister came to visit bringing her daughter. We made cookies.  While they were in the oven, we turned on Christmas music. The Children laughed and played and danced and twirled! The smell, the mess, the laughter, the light, the decorations- That is Christmas!

In sweet, joyful, human chaos, we celebrate and welcome our Lord. We sing with the angels, because He came. All our imperfect celebrations are for him. A holiday so wonderful that we share it with everyone. The green and red decorations and the blinking holiday lights, the reindeer and elves and snowmen, the trees decorated- in each house uniquely representative of the family- it all serves as a joyful but decidedly human backdrop to celebrate the birth this divine child.

Still through the cloven skies they come
With peaceful wings unfurled
And still their heavenly music floats
O'er all the weary world;
Above its sad and lowly plains
They bend on hovering wing.
And ever o'er its Babel sounds
The blessed angels sing.