http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMPY3bwZqeY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp0-STZvbD8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJYUSdX-Rps

I confess…

I don’t know how to do it…

I don’t understand it…

I expect to have to earn love…

And I’m not very good at it…

Because I don’t perform well all the time…

And that’s a problem…

When you’re performing for love…

When your ‘lover’ is really a task master…

When your best is never good enough…

When guilt is the gage of your efforts and constantly says…

“This could have been better…

That was just so close, but…

Not quite there…”

The exercise wheel of perfection has a motor on it, and…

It doesn’t stop when your legs are tired…

It keeps moving…

Until your steps stumble…

And you begin to tumble…

Head over heels…

You get used to it…

Begin to expect it…

Even stumble purposefully, because…

You know its only a matter of time…

So…

There you are…

Stumbling…

Tumbling…

Always waiting for the other shoe to drop…

“They will find out…

I am so not worth it…

Its only a matter of time…”

But…

Slowly…

Imperceptively…

Somebody comes into the room…

Or several somebodies…

And they are patient…

Take you where you are…

Actually seem to like you…

Even love you…

See the worth in you even when you…

Wrap your gifts with denial…

They see something in you…

Uniquely you…

They say pleasant things…

Understand what you hope is true…

And tell you…

And keep telling you…

Even when you are skeptical…

Keep telling you…

Until…

Slowly…

You begin to believe…

And it begins to dawn on you…

That their voices aren’t just their own…

The tone…

The timbre…

Is similar…

From person to person…

And it might be…

It just might be…

You might just be hearing…

For the first time…

The voice of another…

Lover…

Voice…

After…

Voice…

Until…

You begin to understand…

You begin to believe…

You begin to feel…

The voice of…

God…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZacGBUtij4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6mM2HkNE1nA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6IvqgqCZI4

“Me?” Her thoughts began racing. “But I have never…. he and I have never… He would never…. I would never…. not with ANY man… I mean… not before its right…” Looking intently into the burning eyes of the messenger, she asked, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

Although the response cut through the fog in her mind, the last phrase burned into her very soul, “For nothing is impossible with God.”

Her answer brought a smile to the shining face before her…

“I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”

And just as quickly as the messenger had come, he was gone.  Mary got up slowly from the kneeling position she had assumed when the angel appeared. Crossing the room to the door of her father’s house, Mary peered into the bright sunshine of the day. Her eyes not focussing on anything in particular, she lightly placed her hands on her abdomen and began to tenderly guide them across her slender waist. A tear began to roll slightly down one cheek and a song of praise emanating from deep within her soul crossed her trembling lips…

“My soul glorifies the Lord 
       and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 
  for he has been mindful
      of the humble state of his servant. 
  From now on all generations will call me blessed, 
      for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
      holy is his name. 
 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
      from generation to generation. 
 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
      he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 
 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
      but has lifted up the humble. 
 He has filled the hungry with good things
      but has sent the rich away empty. 
 He has helped his servant Israel,
      remembering to be merciful 
 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
      even as he said to our fathers.”

With each line, the smile grew upon her face until she finished in a trail of laughter. “I must tell JoooooOOOOHHHHHJOSEPH! I don’t want to tell Joseph…. How will he ever believe me?” Stepping back into the house, she began to pace back and forth, trying out the conversation in her mind…

“Uh, Joseph, guess who I saw the other day…. No, that’s no good…”

“You know, Joseph, I’ve been thinking…. maybe we should shove the date for the wedding a little closer…. Noooo, shove isn’t a good word….”

“Joseph… You will be such a good father…. No, No, NO!”

“What am I… I mean, HOW am I going to tell him this? This is a miracle… and not you’re run of the mill, Red-Sea-dividing-Jericho-walls-falling-pillar-of-fire-leading-manna-eating kind of miracle! Jehovah…is going to…father a child…in me! What do I say, Jehovah? You know Joseph… He is a good man… a righteous man… the man I love and with whom I want to get old. How can I tell him that I am going to have a baby… BUT I haven’t been unfaithful to him?”

Silence.

“Well… I guess I will just tell him… Oh, Jehovah…. Please help him to believe me…. help him to believe… You!”

I suspect we all have heard the story. Even if just the part Linus recites to Charlie Brown and the rest of the Christmas play cast. But have you ever wondered about the back-story? How does a young woman go to her “betrothed” or engaged beau, and tell him she is pregnant and the father is God? What kind of child support would that get you? Could you get God to show up for a paternity test? It’s all just laughable. How many tongues wagged in Nazareth?

The scripture describes Joseph as a “righteous” man. He must have been kind, too, because he planned on calling off the marriage… divorcing her “quietly” because he “did not want to expose her to public disgrace.” Do you suppose Joseph thought she was… hmmmm… just a little off?

But maybe… there was just something in her eyes as she told him.

Her eyes, her beautiful eyes…. her beautiful, blue eyes…… Oh, sorry! Wrong eyes…

Mary’s were most likely brown. And I suspect there was a shining fire in them that stayed with Joseph, until an angel invaded his sleep to put an exclamation point on her story. Actually, this wasn’t her story at all. It was God’s story, and Mary intuitively understood she was the conduit through which grace would physically appear. But I bet Mary DIDN’T know…

…just how much it would cost her.

I remember when I first heard the song… Mary Did You Know… (which has become as trite as “Santa Baby”  between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day….. I wonder if Leonard Nimoy has recorded either one yet…) I was watching a musical called “The Victor” at a large church around Easter in the early 1990’s. The most powerful scene to me, had two Marys on opposite ends of the stage… one at the manger holding the infant…. the other at the foot of the cross watching her ”baby boy” take his last breath. The haunting melody floated above the screams of anguish from a mother’s heart breaking while the young mother holds innocence close to her breast. I am still moved deeply at my memory of it.

Amazing.

When God speaks in loving tones we can’t always be sure they will be pleasant to hear, but we can be sure they will be filled with “peace on earth, and good will towards men…”

Every Christmas I get sappy… I love all that goes with the season… well… Ok, maybe the house with all the inflatable penguins and elves and santa and reindeer and polar bears… scattered ALL over the property and on the roof ARE  a bit much. But the guy OBVIOUSLY loves to show off  his love of Christmas. Shades of Christmas Vacation!

Anyway, I just fall into the romance of the season. The movies, the music, the candles, the presents, the family, the food. I have always loved Christmas. While growing up, we didn’t get into the materialism of the season. We didn’t have enough money. We did, get into the giving part. I loved Christmas Eve. That was when we openned our presents at my house. Before the unveiling, we would get in the car and drive around town and look at the lighted homes. I loved that. I loved that Dad always asked for and received chocolate covered cherries.

I confess, even as a kid, I was a sap! I used to light candles, turn out the lights and listen to Christmas music… by myself. (I know, a little weird!)  My favorite Christmas artist is still Bing.  I loved carols by the Robert Shaw Chorale. As an adult, I found Jimmy Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” I fell in love with the message of the movie. God doesn’t make mistakes when He creates people, and the world is the poorer if we each weren’t in it. I know that is a bold statement when you consider some of the attrocities throughout history, but… really… even Mr. Potter had a place in the story. If only he had chosen differently…

Every Christmas, I remember my dad, while he was a pastor in Elkhart, Kansas, driving to every family in the congregation and reading the Christmas story. I didn’t think about that much when he was doing it, but now that I’ve grown up, I think how perfect the idea was. We need to be reintroduced to the extravagance of the story.

 In my previous post, I imagined the story from a forgotten perspective: that of Joseph. We forget about Joseph after Bethlehem. But, really, Joseph is the first example of human extravagant love that looks into the viciousness of public opinion and chooses love instead. God knew what He was doing when He chose Joseph to be Jesus’ earthly father. Joseph’s choice could have been completely different. He could have chosen to believe his eyes rather than his ears. Mary stood in a vulnerable position. She had to trust that Joseph was indeed the man to rely on who would trust her character and believe the miracle rather than condemn her and the child.

Obviously, Mary has been held in high regard and for good reason. But Joseph stands out in his courage to be  misunderstood by his culture. I find it interesting how invisable he is in history, yet how important he must have been to the boy, Jesus. How many men in Bethlehem must have thought Joseph to be weak in the way he accepted and loved Mary and Jesus? And how did his own family accept his decision? Did his decision carry any religious consequences? How was he treated in the Synagogue? And yet, there he stands, working with his hands, teaching Jesus how to work… teaching the Creator of wood how to create with wood… Pretty amazing.

We always say that God gave His son… but I’m also intrigued by the thought that Joseph also gave God’s son.

There is speculation that the reason we don’t see Joseph in the bible when Jesus is an adult, is that he had died earlier. Maybe so. Joseph seems conspicuous in his absence. Yet he and Mary conceived other children together. Joseph gives Jesus his own heritage… his family name and line. He took him to the Temple and followed the traditions of his forefathers’ religious tradition even while living with the fulfillment of that tradition. He must have known the untenable nature of the truth in the midst of current  religious teaching.

But Joseph allows his actions to speak for him… How masculine. That action is so similar to so many men I have known throughout my life. He gave his life, treasure, reputation, home, and wife, to God to use as He pleased.

What an amazing man and what an extravagant love….