Christmas Eve Calm

The weeks leading up to Christmas are always surrounded by chaos in our house. Our schedule becomes saturated with holiday activities, gatherings and to-dos and the children’s behavior goes totally wonky. Wonky being the technical term for straight-up crazy!

I’ve looked at my children over the last weeks and wondered what monsters took over their little bodies. I’ve questioned how they could lose years of manners and rules overnight. To say it’s been high-stress around here is an understatement.

But tonight, there is calm.

Tonight, I let go of the stress of the past weeks and of the dishes in the sink. I let go of the laundry piles and the thought of the garbage that will riddle the floor tomorrow. I focus on the music softly playing from the other room and the tossing and turning of little bodies in their bed. I focus on the mountain of presents (that’s what happens when you have four kids!) and the joy that will surely be on the children’s faces in the morning.

I focus on the meaning of the day to come.

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

– Isaiah 9:6

I love the calm that comes with Christmas Eve. The calm of accomplished tasks and warm fires, fresh-baked cookies and sleeping babes.

The calm of salvation coming swaddled in a manger.

I spend time this evening looking about and thanking God for the birth of his son. Thanking God for an innocent babe turned perfect man who carried my sins away on his last breath. Thanking God for his love and grace and unending forgiveness.

I spend my time this evening, among the neatly wrapped packages and haphazardly decorated tree and thank God for the beautiful mess that is my life.

Tomorrow will come and my house will erupt in shrieks of delight, we’ll eat far too much junk and we’ll spend the day in our pajamas as a family. We’ll bake a birthday cake for Jesus, decorate it with as many sprinkles as we can find and sing Happy Birthday.

Tomorrow will come with all of it’s chaotic energy, but right now I cherish the calm of Christmas Eve.

The calm of salvation coming swaddled in a manger.