Merry Christmas!

Yes. I know Christmas is tomorrow.

But that's weekly recap day, so I wanted to spend today wishing you a Merry Christmas!

This year, Christmas has been out of sorts for me. Everything was late, rushed, scaled back, and occasionally filled with tears. Nothing was coordinated, well-planned, or sometimes even executed. I felt like I was living some sort of Lifetime movie about the Christmas that wasn't.

I know I'm not alone in that feeling. If Facebook and blog posts are any indication, many of you are in that same discombobulated boat.

But in my state of disarray, this thought did occur to me:

Wasn't the first Christmas that way?

Mary didn't have a color coordinated nursery with perfectly spaced striped walls and Jesus' name hand painted opposite the crib. No monogrammed blankets and pre-laundered onesies. The car seat wasn't installed by a police officer and she hadn't received one thing off the registry. The suitcase wasn't packed by the front door and I highly doubt her weekly pregnancy photos had been documented with the corresponding fruit and/or vegetable representing the baby's size.

It was a discombobulated Christmas then, too.

And yet how God takes the chaotic and makes it beautiful.

He still does.

And I'm grateful.

Merry Christmas to you, dear friends!

One of my favorite Christmas songs...and it must be sung by Point of Grace. (You thought I was going to say David, didn't you?)