Filling the Cracks

What makes the perfect Christmas? You can hang out golden carrots for the reindeer – a snip at £48. But the golden carrot doesn’t taste as good as it looks.

Strange that we strain to have “the perfect Christmas” when the first Christmas was anything but. No-one chooses a draughty, smelly stable for their Christmas lunch.

What a relief that the pressure to make the perfect Christmas doesn't come from Jesus; he came to save this imperfect, sin-damaged world. 

The truth is that all families are imperfect, damaged in some way. Even my nativity set family is broken. Joseph’s feet were chewed by our dog so he has to stand behind the manger. 

A friend of mind realised why she overspent every Christmas. She'd grown up in a family so unhappy that her mum had always tried to make up for the rest of the year by splashing out on Christmas day and she'd followed suit. Lots of wrapping paper to hide the cracks.

Don't let's stress over having the perfect day or the perfect gift. We have pure joy, not fake gold: it is to this imperfect world that Christ was born - for love of imperfect us.

This December 25 will find many hungry, lonely, sick or afraid. Many like us see a gap at the table. And yet it is here that we can discover what Immanuel truly means - God is with us, where we are. He didn't come to cover up the cracks but to fill them.