I maneuvered myself through the mall the other night. Yes, just days before Christmas I chose to enter the mall. Cue the dramatic music. The adventure certainly lived up to my expectation.
Thick with people doing all of the last-minute things, the mall was a congested mass of humanity, not even a fraction of which seemed to be moving in the direction or at the speed I prefer. I wasn’t exactly grinch-y about it, but as I navigated the corridors between shops I could not help but think – malls really need a passing lane.
Really, why aren’t we running this like a highway – slower traffic to the right, others to the left – it works nicely most of the time.
Bobbing and weaving in my single mission to get from point A to point B, I continued to try to solve this issue for the mall.
Maybe they need a little lane to the left side for people who have no interest in window shopping, no desire to stop between stores and make new friends. Just a little passing lane, or a back alley even, for the girl who knows what she wants – one hardside 20” carry-on in the shade of pink berry. I already checked online, you have 3 left in stock. I will take one and be on my way, please, thanks and Merry Christmas!
[Side track: My 8 and 10 year old girls asked for suitcases for Christmas. I can’t decide if this is weird or awesome. I have no idea where they think they are going. However, I was the mom shopping the nearly empty luggage department rather than a massively crowded and picked over toy aisle a few days before Christmas. Weird or awesome, luggage felt like a win.]
Surviving the mall, I stowed my suitcase in the car, and attempted to flee the parking lot while still trying to solve the mall’s traffic flow issues. What if they installed a few of those fast track escalator things that airports have? But then we would still have the people who get on and stand rather than walk.
It was only then that I noticed the familiar tune leaking from my car radio – O come let us adore Him….
If I had a theme song fo this season, this might be it. I have the words lettered on my pantry chalkboard. It’s the title of the advent devotion I’m reading. And, most importantly, those words are my earnest heart cry – God, in this season that is so beautiful, so much, help me learn to adore You here.
There are moments when I do this better than others. Moments when all the children are snug in their beds sleeping, and I get to read my Bible in my quiet home, lit only by the twinkly tree lights. Adoring Him comes easier in that place.
And then there are moments when I’m at the mall, trying to foot race window shoppers and other slow moving traffic, which leads to me to spend a good hour thinking about the traffic flow issues of major shopping centers.
The guilt creeps in quickly.
Oh God, what have I just adored for the last hour? What has captivated my heart and attention.
I’m a pendulum swinging hard one way or another some days, friend. I am a fickle and intemperate flower, growing only in peak and unsustainable conditions. I’m a disciple in the garden sleeping quick and deep, when I’ve been asked to pray. I’ve been told the time is near (1 Peter 4:7) – but how much time do I spend watching and waiting?
It is good for my weakness to humble me. But in this place I also remember, He came both to this and for this. He entered in the very realest place of our humanity, through a scared and brave girl, in an animal stall, with a borrowed bed. Does it get any realer than that?
He came both to us and for us in the wildest and most beautiful redemption story ever told – a redemption story for a weak and weary world desperately in need of a Savior. A redemption story for disciples who would learn first hand what it meant to follow Him. For a sinner hanging broken beside him on a cross. And for a mom caught up in the Christmas rush and wondering how she can bypass the humanity bumping into her.
He came to this and for this.
Sometimes Christmas feels a bit either/or to me. I adore Him and then I don’t. We’re Christ-centered, until we’re not. But what if the very meaning of Christmas defies this simple logic?
He came to this, for this.
He gets this. Via a lowly manger He displayed His wild love for us and His redeeming power over the sin we struggle with daily.
This fight to align our hearts and affections, to guide our adoration back to the only One worthy? He entered the world, to this and for this, in perfect obedience.
There is nothing more humbling or beautiful than that, friend.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Philippians 2:5-8
This is the Christmas Story, friend. We do not have a have a High Priest who cannot sympathize (Hebrews 4:14). He came to us and for us.
May we be humbled. Stand in awe. And adore Him, right in the the thick of it all. Here.
Merry Christmas, friends. We have much to celebrate.
Well said. How true a lesson I’m still learning.
As always, you share just what I need to hear in such a simple, yet profound way. Thank you, and Merry Christmas! May we all adore the Prince of Peace AS we go through these busy few days ahead of us.
Yes, may it be so. Merry Christmas, Judith!