By John Pierce
Where did we get the idea that Christmas should be perfect?
That’s easy to answer: Christmas stories, Christmas songs, Christmas movies, Christmas greeting cards, Martha Stewart.
Often we can end up with the false notion that a proper Christmas should be free of head colds, personality conflicts, late shipping or dry turkey.
Perhaps it is helpful to consider Christmas as just another day — in one sense.
Love, joy, hope and peace are not for a day or even a season. These Christmas gifts are daily pursuits among the challenges and imperfections that mark all of our lives.
Christmas serves its best purpose as a reminder that this holy interruption in human history is not about everything being “just right” for a day. It is the assurance of needed grace and the promise of hope amid the ongoing experiences of daily living.
To expect perfection for a day is to anticipate a lesser gift that is rarely delivered. There is one far greater and more lasting.
“Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.”
