Fiat

As this short season of Advent swirls around us in a flurry of busyness, the word fiat has been on my heart.   It is after all, thanks to Mary's fiat, her "yes" to God's will, that the whole Incarnation came about as it did.  She said yes to something that could cause scandal, yes to bringing up the Son of God, yes to carrying Him in her body for nine months, yes to giving birth to Him.

She probably didn't know when she said "yes" that she'd have to give birth to Him after more than a week of bumbling along on a donkey while nine months pregnant, or that she'd have to give birth to Him in a cold, dark, dirty stable, or that after His birth they'd have to hide out in the desert for two years.  She probably didn't know when she said "yes" that she would have to watch him suffer and die at the hands of the people He loved so dearly.  But she said "yes" to God, and though it caused her times of pain and suffering, she allowed God to use her to help bring about the salvation of the world, through the miracle of a tiny baby.

In a way, this is how God uses all of our fiats.  Every time we place our trust in God, we say "yes" to His will for the salvation of the world.  Most of the time we don't have any idea how His plans will unfold, but we know that it likely won't be easy.  There will be sacrifice, pain, and suffering along the way, but it is through this sanctifying grace that we are transformed to become whatever God wants us to be.  It is through our fiats that He brings about the most glorious things!

This year, my greatest desire is for us all to appreciate more fully the love that God has for us.  He came to earth to be one of us, to share in our human experience, to be treated horribly and executed so that our sins will not be held against us.

The miracle of the Incarnation becomes more real for me every year, and when I close my eyes, I find myself on my knees.  I kneel beside the manger, holding Mary's hand as she rests and recovers from the difficult journey and the birth.  While she sleeps, I watch over her baby, my brother, my King.  I want to touch the soft cheek of the baby Jesus, because I know that with only a touch, I can be healed of my petty, whiny, selfishness.

O heal me, Jesus, and help me to embrace fully the plans You have for my life.  Help me to focus on the love and blessings I do have and not be so worried and anxious about what I don't have.  And thank You for coming to save us.

May the joy and peace of the infant Jesus fill our hearts this Christmas season!

(To see the sweetest interpretation of how God's ways are beyond our wildest imaginings, 

watch the video below.)

Merry Christmas!

Enough

Everyone keeps asking if I'm ready for Christmas.

I think most people who ask that question are referring to Christmas shopping--have I gotten my shopping done?   Yes, because I didn't really do gifts this year.  It's not that I didn't want to give gifts--I generally enjoy giving them much more than receiving them.  It's that I can't really afford it this year, so I'm making Christmas breakfast for the fam instead.

When I get this question though, I hear--are you ready for this retail nightmare to end?  The answer to that is YES.  I look forward to spending 24 hours with my family and not having to worry that I'll get a call from work.  I am SO ready for that.

The real question though should be--am I ready for Christ?  I wonder if I've done enough this Advent to prepare for the coming of Jesus.  My holy hours were limited, my prayers barely formed, my Advent reading only a third finished, so it would seem that I haven't done nearly enough to prepare.  But when I think about the infant Jesus coming to save me from my sins, coming to love the lonely, to comfort the suffering--I know that my tired eyes and weary bones and exhausted spirit are more than ready to kneel beside the manger and welcome Jesus.

It's because I have nothing left to give--no gifts, no more effort to put into my work, nothing but my weak and weary self.  And the really humbling thing is that that is enough.  That is all He wants.  For me, for you, for the impatient and frantic last-minute customers, for us all to come to Him.  He is the Gift, and He wants to give Himself to us.

It's an awe-inspiring and humbling love.  Come, let us adore Him!

Merry Christmas!

A Baby for Christmas

The day before the world was supposed to end, I watched life enter into it.

It was the birth of my nephew, and though my mom and sister thought for sure I'd be completely grossed out and scarred for life, I was in awe rather than disgust.

Life in its humble beginnings isn't exactly pretty--no sunshine and butterflies.  It's gory and painful, but it's how we all come into the world.  Our lives begin quietly and in secret, but we enter the world wailing and bloody.

When God sent His Son to walk among us, He didn't miss a beat.  Christ entered fully into the human experience.  When He entered the world, it wasn't even in a clean hospital with doctors, nurses and specialists around monitoring His heartbeat.  (Can you imagine Jesus' heart being monitored?  I think the machine would explode.)  He was in a stable with smelly animals and their poo.

I was thinking about all this as I cuddled my nephew close on Christmas morning.  The floor in the living room around the Christmas tree was littered with gifts and wrapping paper. The baby, just recently changed and fed, slept through it all.  He didn't care about the adorable tuxedo onesie I got for him.  He was just content to be warm, dry, and fed.

And I wondered about all the people who weren't those things on Christmas morning.  Jesus came for them, not for the pile of presents under our tree.  We always say, "It's Jesus' birthday, not ours, so we should just be thankful for what we have."  But we still give each other presents, stuff we don't need.  And what do we give Jesus?  An hour of church time?  No, that's what He gives us--Himself in the Eucharist, made possible by the Incarnation.

"To whom much is given much is expected." (Luke 12:48)  That verse haunts me.  It rattles the walls of my conviction and makes me dig deeper and wonder how firmly I really believe.  Because if I really believed it--in God's love and mercy and goodness--it shouldn't scare me at all.

I found these videos on Ann Voskamp's blog (author of One Thousand Gifts).  You're welcome.