Treasure
the chaos I
By Tiffany L. Tibbs
find Christmas exhausting. Don’t get me wrong. I like Christmas. I enjoy being with family and friends, and seeing my children’s wonder and glee. I’m just exhausted by the season, which in my mind begins in November and doesn’t finish until mid-January. There are Christmas parties and Christmas programs and Christmas services and Christmas decorations and Christmas cookies and Christ- mas presents and Christmas dinners. All of these require planning and execution.
Getting ready for Christmas is like going to battle. Check the calendar. Develop a plan of attack for multiple celebrations—especially on Christ-
Tibbs is a freelance writer in St. Louis. 28 The Lutheran •
www.thelutheran.org mas Day.
On Dec. 25 we need to start open- ing presents at 0700 hours, leave the house by 1100 hours to visit one side of the family, leave at 1600 hours to make it to the next family event, attend the Christmas service at 1800 hours, and get back home for bed- time by 2100 hours.
My daughters have uniforms: fancy Christmas dresses, Christmas PJs and the requisite Christmas sweaters. There are rations: Christ- mas cookies, veggie trays and rolls for each event. And our vehicle must be fueled and ready to go with the right presents for the right people at the right event.
By the time the holidays are over, I am battle weary.
But who am I fighting? And what am I winning? Christmas never goes according to plan. The gift that I thought would elicit squeals of joy is
GETTY IMAGES/PASCAL CAMPION
soon discarded. A child always spills juice on her fancy dress. We never make it anywhere on time. And I’m left wondering: “Where is Jesus in all of this? A casualty of war? Buried under mounds of wrapping paper?” So this year, the Christmas season
isn’t going to be a mission for me to accomplish, with precise planning and logistical finesse. Instead, I am turning to the Christmas story itself. And I am marveling at the story, at the mission God accomplished and, particularly, at Mary’s reflection dur- ing the whole messy thing. Mary certainly experienced chaos and exhaustion. She rode a donkey while nine months pregnant. Without a place to stay, she bunked down in a barn. There she gave birth in front of a bunch of cows. Then she was visited by shepherds and sheep after Jesus’ birth announcement was broadcast across the sky. Later came more strangers from a foreign land, with exotic and unexpected gifts. What would I do if any of these
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