We heard it on Sunday. How there was silence. 400 years of Divine silence. Before the flesh became the Word—and the Word flesh and darkness broke to light. 400 years while Israel listened to the silence of God, and the noise of their own mess, and if there ever was a lack of answers it was then. And Christmas promises that despite the silence and our mess and unanswered questions—sometimes in cold, smelly places our world sifts toward light and, like a teen girl in labor, when we feel the most out of control is when true life begins. And living is being messy and broken ALLtogether, when everyone thinks we just look cute standing under a lamp post.

 

We are all a mess this Christamas. Every last one of us. You are, whether you know it or not, and I am also. We are all messy–or the mess is around us or in us–but Christamas means that we can laugh despite the mess. Because the silence was broken once and will be for us too, once the fullness of time comes. 

 

(lamp-post photo credits to Japheth Stauffer)