Saturday morning. Sofa. Coffee.
The humongous bells are now dangling from the roof in the glassed atrium at the Galleria. It's beginning to look a lot like a two percent Christmas. But I like them. And I like the omni-present Christmas music that follows shoppers wherever we go.
"I'll be home for Christmas. You can plan on me."
I find myself doing my best crooner imitation as I walk along. No one has stopped me for my autograph. Harry Connick Jr. is safe.
Home for Christmas. It is the theme of thousands of small town parades, Christmas cards, school plays, Hallmark movies, Hallmark commercials, and of course, songs.
But what about Jesus?
He certainly was not home for that first Christmas. Nor was his family.
And his homeless condition did not end in Bethlehem.
"Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." Luke 9:58
We are afraid of that. As we speak and sing of the comforting thought of being home for Christmas, we who say that we follow Jesus are secretly afraid. We turn up the volume when Bing Crosby reserves his place at home for the holidays.
Partially because we don't want to hear another familiar voice quietly patiently saying, "Put down whatever you are doing and come follow me." After all no one ever wrote an endearing song about the joys of being on the road for the holidays. (Although Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a great movie).
Christmas is a celebration of God's willingness to come to us where we are. And He came with an invitation. Jesus said "Come and follow me."
In our simple minded arrogance we either boast of our sacrifices for the small steps we take outside our doors or even worse we take no steps at all convincing ourselves that surely God would never ask us to leave the Godly homes we have created and maintain.
Our sad mistake is that God's invitation is not for us to leave home . . .
It is an invitation to truly come home.
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