It was nearing the end of a long day, and there was still more to do. I propped up my coffee cake recipe and got out my measuring cups, ready to bake a breakfast treat for tomorrow’s Christmas party at work. My son Henry was busy too, getting ready for the neighborhood gingerbread house competition.
While I poured ingredients into my mixing bowl, I kept an eye on him. The first disaster: the royal icing was soupy instead of sticky. I interrupted my recipe to make him some regular icing in a bowl, which we put into a Ziploc bag with the corner cut.
After outlining the eaves of the roof with blue, he ran into more trouble when he tried gluing the little candies on the walls. My nine-year-old is extremely dexterous but even this was too much for him.
His moans and groans escalated with his frustration.
I put my coffee cake in the oven and went over to help. He couldn’t get the candy lights to dangle from the edge of the roof, and to my artistic, ambitious son, this was unacceptable. So out came the glue gun, and using it was tedious but it did the trick. Henry then glued gumdrops around the perimeter, and colored the windows with yellow sugar.
It took us a whopping three hours to finish, and when he gave me a high-five and headed up to bed, I tried my hardest not to resent the goopy icing and sprinkle explosion I had to clean up.
The important thing was that I hadn’t let him struggle on his own for too long. I got my own hands dirty with his project, knowing how much this meant to him.
Since becoming a mom, I’ve better understood God as our Heavenly Parent. There isn’t language that can contain who God is, and the Bible is teeming with metaphors describing God—shepherd, rock, fire, king, vine, light, bread. But a parent does many things out of an unconditional love for their child, and one of them is getting their hands dirty.
Christmas is the time when we celebrate Emmanuel: God with us. God didn’t let us struggle on our own, didn’t turn away from our moans and groans, but moved right into our mess.
“The beauty of the incarnation,” writes Rachel Held Evans, “is not just that God came to us in human form. Inherent in the Incarnation is that God came to embody relationship, to remind us that love is personal—and interpersonal.”1
Love is personal and interpersonal. We cannot love from a detached distance. Love moves up close, joins the struggle, gets dirty. Love sees what we’re trying to do, sees the mess we’ve made, and comes to rescue us and heal the hurt.
If I—a very human and fallible mom, tired from a long day—am able to love my son, how much more is God our Heavenly Parent able to love us from God’s abundant power and grace!
O come, O come, Emmanuel!
Something I wrote: How to Recapture the Wonder of the Christmas Story. Familiarity smothers wonder. I wrote this for all of us who are feeling a little jaded by the story we’ve heard all our lives. (Bonus: I also share a poem that has me grinning ear to ear every time I read it!)
Something I read and loved: For the Awake in the Night by
speaks so well to the darkness of Advent, and how each of our souls long for the light! A beautiful read.Something I listened to: This conversation with Farrell Mason on the Things Above podcast about how to nourish our body, mind, soul was thought-provoking and uplifting! I’m especially charmed by the idea of living “glimmer to glimmer.”
Something I’m cooking: This Creamy Tomato Gnocchi looks like grown-up comfort food and I can’t wait to serve it with garlic bread on the side!
Do you like to pick a word to guide the year ahead? 2024 is right around the corner, and if you’d like some suggestions and guidance in coming up with the best word, my friend Twyla Franz has a lovely freebie for you! Click here to get her 200 word-of-the-year ideas!
(Or do you already have your word picked out? Tell me in the comments, I’d love to know!)
Until next time,
From Wholehearted Faith, page 6.
My word for this year and every year is Jesus. There is nothing that resounds louder in my heart. Jesus overcame all the terrible things I went thru as a kid, teenager, and bride to 3 husbands, abusive all. Everytime I needed help, Jesus was there. So Jesus has been, is, and will be always my word no matter what else might be going on in my life. Jesus is my word.
I haven’t decided on my 2024 word yet (I’ve picked a word for quite a few years now) but I’m considering “abundance “. I’m acutely aware of so many areas of lack in my life, so maybe this word would help me focus on the abundance God has already provided.