Daring to be Restless

It’s the night before Christmas, the culmination of the season.   For weeks, we have been surrounded by Santa Clauses and reindeer, with gifts and Christmas Trees, with clichéd Christmas songs and ugly sweaters.   And if we aren’t careful, in this climate of materialism and showmanship, the Christmas story could easily become simply another part of the season, like a fairytale or folk story, like a Disney movie, where everyone lives “happily ever after” and you can almost “feel a song coming on” every few minutes. The baby Jesus could become a figurine like Rudolph to be set on a shelf and admired, part of a story to be told and laughed at in all its absurdities.    But the beauty of the Christmas story isn’t in its “fairytale” simplicity.   It is in the gritty realities of God’s plan of salvation, in the way that God stepped into our brokenness. Think of it, our Savior entered into … -           The confusing and awkward life of a teenager .   By all accounts, Mary w