And they came with haste....

Last weekend Tom and I took a little road trip to Fredericksburg. It had been a hectic few weeks prior, and we wanted to just have a relaxing day without the demands of a schedule. Though we set out early and arrived downtown well before the shops opened, the main street was already packed.

People were clustered around the benches lining the sidewalk. There was a Santa busily setting up shop 'round a storefront Christmas tree, and the park was positively bustling with some sort of craft fair or other. We tried in vain for about a half hour or so to locate a parking spot, but there were none to be had, not even way down past the Nimitz Museum.

It seems lots of folks had the same idea we did, to experience some of the wonder of Christmas by strolling the bedazzled and bedecked streets of this small town in the Hill Country.

This time of year is filled with a certain kind of magic. Everything is ornamented... from light-wrapped tree branches to garlands stretching over the streets. Wreaths adorn doorways and vehicles sport reindeer antlers. My goodness, people even seem friendlier, bidding "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" to passers-by, friends and strangers alike.

It's easy to get caught up in all the merriment and fuss and rush of the season. There is such a sumptuous buffet of things to taste, to see, and to do. There is also such a list of tasks to get done. There's always one more present to buy, one more card to write, one more batch of cookies to bake... one more party to attend.

There's an awful lot of hastening going on, but for what purpose? To what end?

How cliche it has become to remark on the commercialization of Christmas. How stale the warnings against the trappings of the season that pull us away from the true reason we celebrate. We've heard it all before ad nauseam.

Though old and tired, those words are still valid and worth contemplating.

Perhaps if we fill our days with only the BEST activities. If we thrill ONLY to the choirs and orchestras performing the sacred Christmas cantatas and oratorios. If we book ONLY the times for the drive-thru and live nativities, surely that kind of busyness, that kind of haste is acceptable and appropriate... and even... necessary to enhance the meaning of our celebration.

I have reasoned that way many a time... but is it really?

Necessary.

To answer that question I have to go to the ultimate authority, the biblical account of Jesus' birth.

My all-time favorite Christmas passage is found in the Gospel of Luke, chapter two. In particular, it's the verses 15 - 20 that touch my heart the greatest. It's the story of the shepherds, abiding in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.

This whole thing.

This interplay between shepherds and sheep... between The Lamb and the shepherds. Between the One who would shepherd His people, and, in the fullness of time... would also willingly become the Sacrificial Lamb.

Of course. Of course the shepherds would be the ones to first hear the good news that the Savior was born!

But my favorite verse comes immediately after the angels' proclamation: "And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger." (v.16)

They came... with haste.

Those humble, smelly, (perhaps weary) yet awe-struck shepherds hurried; they might have even run toward this good news. They wasted no time getting to the Savior. They heard. And. They hastened.

That is what Christmas is all about, isn't it? That is the purpose. To what end all this hustling and hurrying if not to get to the manger? The manger is our destination. To bring our hearts in adoration and worship is our end... and,... our beautiful beginning.

There are so many wonderful things to do, to experience during the Christmas season. Personally I'd love to do them all. However, we can find ourselves bedraggled and worn out even when taking part in only the best things this season has to offer. But when all the hustle leaves us too tired, too frazzled to hasten to the only place, the only One we need to rush to, we need to take a lesson from the shepherds.

No gift needing to be purchased; no cookies needing to be baked; no party needing to be attended; not even that beautiful oratorio needing to be heard should take the place of our place at the manger.

May we all, and our precious loved ones, have a very shepherd-like Christmas this year, hastening to the only place necessary.

"And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds." - Luke 2:17-18