Well, the experts are in agreement. Naturally, we can fall in line. From about March, some of them have been freaking out about viral outbreaks, toilet paper shortages, systemic racism, then the virus again. And now, with all that still in play, others are claiming fraudulent elections and unverified votes. Apart from agreeing as to the reason for it, we do have a nation that is in the midst of unrest. And by the looks of it, the unrest is about to get much more unrestful. In come the mainstream Preppers, the shortages of chicken farming equipment, and Facebook ads for imperishable food emergency kits. Y2K was short of freak-out-mania. Masks have pushed 2K2O past that point.
I’ve never used the word tumultuous so much in a single year before. If things are in fact about to escalate, then perhaps some of these Preppers have a point. After all, being prepared is a good thing, right? Apart from making any comments for or against material preparations, I do think that preparing attitudes and expectations probably is a good thing to do before setting up camp in Sherwood. There are, of course, different ingredients we would need to make adequate preparations in that front. But the key ingredient, I would argue, is to fill our minds and hearts with plenty of true, good, and beautiful stories.
Stories, in some aspect more than dogma, are what ground our navigation and confidence through the dense fog of life the way a compass keeps a boat on course when the darkness doesn’t lift. And there’s one thing about a good story without which we would all noticeably hate the story: the conflict. Every great adventure has a great obstacle to overcome. Yes, the conflict is not the point of the story. But it holds the entire plot together. Without an enemy to conquer or a problem to solve, the story would have no rising action, no climax, and no resolution. The greater the problem the more glorious the resolution. The greater the problem, the more interesting the story.
One such example is the Christmas story. The Christmas season, every year, is filled with warmth and coziness, food and drink, laughter and song. If not in your home, at least on the TV. These are all good things that should fill up this time of the year. But if you know the Christmas story, you know that it was actually not anything close to warm and cozy.
My wife has been pregnant a few times. She gave birth to our baby girl this year. Like any pregnant woman, my wife will confirm that pregnancy is not as pleasant as people on Instagram portray it. Nausea, back-pain, consistently full bladder, and overall discomfort are a few words that describe pregnancy much more accurately than “glowing”, “amazing”, or “blooming.” To be sure, life in the womb, starting at conception, is amazing and a wonderful gift. It’s just not as cozy and comfortable for the mom.
So, if you’ve been pregnant before or have lived with someone who has, keep in mind that aching condition. If you haven’t experienced it, imagine being nauseous whether you’re hungry or full, your back aching like a car hit you, you needing to pee every 15 minutes (day and night), and you’ve just gained 70 pounds in under a year. That dreadful condition is the start of the original, “warm and cozy” Christmas story.
Being full-term pregnant, the mother of our Lord had to travel about 90 miles (which is about from Everett to the border of Canada). But it’s okay because she was inside a luxurious Toyota Land Cruiser, and the trip only took about 2 hours. Actually no. She was either on foot (oh yeah, when you’re pregnant your feet always hurt too), or she was on the back of a donkey, going across rough terrain, under open-weather conditions, for probably about 9 days. Oh, and they would have had to be on guard against wild animals and bandits along the trip, maybe even fending off some. Joseph was definitely not confused about his gender.
After arriving to her destination, she of course got to rest well in the best hotel in town, because, well she deserved it. I mean not only is she very much pregnant and they just had an extremely difficult journey, she was already at the point of labor. Hotel? Who am I kidding? They probably got a clean and sanitary hospital with the care of nurses giving her ice chips, massaging her feet, and attending to her every need. Of course, that’s how it was. She was in a difficult situation. She deserved it!
Actually, that’s also not what happened. There was no end in sight to Mary’s problems. She found a place to give birth to the King of Kings in a stable-like structure that housed farm animals. Now again, in cartoons and pictures, the stable looks like an exotic resort for a weekend get-away. Such a cozy haystack to snuggle in. Just perfect for labor.
If you’ve ever been inside an active barn you know that the hay is full of pollen-like dust that makes you sneeze and wreaks of wet and sun-dried animals. When you handle barn hay, your hands feel parched and dusty – a strange, dry, oily feeling. The barn is not as bad if the animals have been moved out. But if the barn or stable is currently housing animals, it smells even worse. As a general life rule, if flies are swarming around, it’s probably not sanitary. In no way was this stable a peaceful, exotic resort.
So, she labors and gives birth in this fly-infested, barnyard-of-a-place and lays her baby in the animal feeding trough. But it’s okay because they had Clorox Wipes to disinfect all the surfaces from COVID-19. Again, nothing of the sort. The baby was put into the same box that the animals just ate out of.
Upon the baby’s birth, a bright star shined in the heavens. Now, that’s actually pretty cool. A star in heaven appears to proclaim your baby’s birth. That just made it all worth it. Problems are over. Time for fame and glory!
The star did proclaim the baby’s birth, but who eventually found out due to that star was the person with the power and the drive to kill the baby. The King of Judea was a wicked man. Modern baby-killing clinics try to cover up their murderous deeds. This government official slaughtered hundreds of baby boys in the open, chasing down one, specific baby. By this point the baby is probably closer to 2 years old, and to protect him, his parents pack their things and run away to Egypt – an at least 40-mile journey (a 2-3-day trip on foot and donkey). After the dust settles, they come back to their original hometown which is about 110 miles away at this point.
So apart from being warm and cozy, the Christmas story is actually full of pain, discomfort, murder, and a lot of walking. If this is the actual story, shouldn’t Christmas be a time for mourning and solemn memories? It’s a dark story that none of us would wish to go through. Why do we celebrate and feast and laugh and sing?
There was one point of the story that I missed. On the night that He was born, there actually was singing and celebration. And it’s for the same reason that the celebration occurred that night, that we celebrate today and have been for nearly two thousand years. On the same night that the baby was put into that feeding trough, a voice and a song was heard from heaven to ensure that this night was never associated with pain, fear, and mourning:
“Fear not,” [the voice said,] “for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:10-11 (ESV)
And a song was sung with the words:
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.” – Luke 2:14 (ESV)
Mary and Joseph’s Christmas story was much different than Hallmark’s. And the life of that child was not one that we would call easy. His story actually gets much harder. More pain. More murder. Just like his mom walked to a dreadful place to give birth to him, so he walked to a gruesome place to give life to so many others.
We celebrate and feast on Christmas, because even though the Christmas story was full of problems, heartache, and conflict, it was actually the start of the resolution to the even greater problem of our separation from our Maker. In a world filled with sin, sorrow, and despair, the Christmas story is a bright light of hope for salvation, redemption, and glory. The story culminates into something wonderful and glorious, which we celebrate and feast over every year.
We read about the struggles of Mary and Jesus, and we praise God for the glory that followed. But that one thing about every good story without which the story would not be any good, is the same thing that we think our own story would be better without. We know that problems are what make stories glorious. At the same time, we think that our story would be more glorious without them. We forget to read our story the way we read others. When we come across a problem, instead of seeing an opportunity for a glorious resolution, many of us just wish the problem to be gone. We sit and mope, convincing ourselves that we deserve better, wasting away an opportunity for a great story.
Every great story has a great problem. The bigger the problem, the better the story. The story about Bilbo Baggins is one such as this. Bilbo goes on a quest to help kill a dragon named Smaug and get back the stolen treasure. Throughout the quest he meets problem after problem after problem. Trolls, goblins, wolves, and elves were just a few of his confrontations. At the end, after he helped to kill the dragon and get to the treasure (the point when his story was supposed to be resolved), Bilbo’s problems only increased with the Battle of 5 Armies. Sounds kind of like our previous year. Come on already.
Tolkien’s narration of Bilbo’s experience of that battle – the one that came when Bilbo was supposed to be done already – is alone worth reading the book for:
“It was a terrible battle. The most dreadful of all of Bilbo’s experiences, and the one which at the time he hated most – which is to say it was the one he was most proud of, and most fond of recalling long afterwards.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit
Each of our lives has a story of its own. Our stories are full of challenges and laughs, problems and glories. If things are going the way they look, it’s about to get more exciting for all of us. With the storm on the horizon, we can either shy away from the upcoming conflicts, or we can confront them in such a way that we would be most fond of recalling afterwards.
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