I’ve been having a little trouble getting into the “Christmas Spirit” this year. Couldn’t put my finger on the problem until this morning when I drove past a Nativity on the lawn of a local church. They put up the same display every year. It’s cut out painted plywood.
In the time it took to drive past the shepherd with his sheep, the three wise men and the little family in the center I realized what was missing. So far my Christmas has been very much like the nativity made of plywood. Very two dimensional.
It has length.I mean this is my 48th Christmas. I have a nice long history, some really good solid traditions and enough happy memories to consider Christmas a positive part of my life story.
It has height. There’s a very tall tree on the front porch soaking up water and waiting to push the boundary of my living room ceiling like those ambitious pines and firs of the past. I have 14 storage boxes of decorations stacked up in the living room to deal with before the tree can make it’s grand entrance.
But what I’ve been missing, what the plywood nativity so clearly reminded me, is depth. The deep eternal mystery of Christmas is what my heart was longing for. The richness of the Gift given freely but at a cost incalculable and immeasurable. So this afternoon with a fire in the fireplace and all those boxes of decorations my heart is remembering the meaning each represents. The love and thankfulness of Christmas through the years. The tall list of blessings and friends and joy this past year but all made real by the depth of the One who’s depth I will spend eternity celebrating.
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the LOVE OF GOD that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May you have a 3 dimensional Christmas this year.
In 
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