Admittedly the Christmas season keeps us all busy. Year by year it seems that obligations grow, expectations rise and exhaustion devours us. Holiday issues of popular magazines tout articles on stress-free Christmas celebrations. It seems that we long for simplicity.
But Christmas is not simple.
Author Quinn Caldwell writes, ‘If you have too many cookie exchanges or whatever, you’re just going to have to find a way to deal with that yourself.’ The irony is that
while we simplify what we can of Christmas God came to us in one of the most complicated and messy periods of history.
During the month leading up to Christmas (advent) I invite you to consider participating in a study of the complexity of Christmas by reading the twice-daily thoughts of Quinn
Caldwell in the new Christmas devotional entitled All I Really Want.
Beginning on November 30 Pastor Joel will be preaching a Christmas series ‘Christmas: It’s Complicated’ and we’ll be hosting a weekly book study to discuss the week’s readings, encouraging you to post your thoughts on social media like Facebook or Twitter using #complicatedxmas.