Like freedom in the spring

Merry Christmas.  I caught myself today saying it so many different ways to so many different people.  Sometimes I say it like a statement.  Sometimes I say it emphatically!  Some moments it's more like a question?

Sometimes Christmas feels like a question.  I don't know what kind of family you have or what kind of life you come from, but my guess is that it's not perfect.  It has flaws and scars and maybe wounds.  Maybe deep, empty silence.  Maybe things you wish were different and people you make wishes for.

Yet that's not what today is about-

That's what occurred to me today as I sat around my own table, with my own family, with my own self, with my own flaws.  We are imperfect people who were rescued by a perfect love.  That's what it's about.  It's about the redemption plan created to buy back our hearts from darkness to light.

It's about this idea that if the whole Bible is true- radically, emphatically, undeniably true- then redemption is possible for us.  Light is possible for us.  Love is possible for us- even out of our flaws and scars.  That because of this child born of a virgin, in a manger, to a rough and broken world, we can have a relationship with God.

And that feels like a miracle to me.

No matter what else feels wrong, that's right.  That is a reason to celebrate today. With the sunrise and with the sunset.  With my flaws and with my family.   Redemption- through a child in a manger, through a God big enough to rescue, and through a king who will make all things right again, like freedom in the spring.

Merry Christmas, dear friend.  I hope you spent it with people who know you, people who remember what has been but have hope for what can be.  May you never run out of reasons to celebrate.