Christmas. The End of "Should"

Perhaps it's a sad thing that the strongest lesson I've learned over the past five years isn't anything pretty or shiny - it's rather ugly, but I surely am thankful to have received it.

I want to talk about blame. I want to talk about punishment. I want to talk about people getting what they deserve.

...BUT wait...this is Christmas, you say. Why are you going to talk about that depressing stuff again, Charlotte?

Because Christmas - the birth of our Savior - ended that cycle. Let me take that back - it was SUPPOSED to end that cycle; the cycle of scapegoating, blame, and punishment.

Let's think for a second.

Mary SHOULD have been stoned, you think? She was a young, unmarried, woman...it took some angels and a BIG star to get people to realize that she wasn't just pregnant with any ol' baby, but a savior. I want to know why she didn't get "what she deserved" sooner....how did that happen? Is that why she was so far from home and had to journey back to register? Did she have to go away so that no one would know?

What about Joseph? He SHOULD have left her high and dry - pregnant with a baby he didn't make...he SHOULD have left her.

But he didn't.

And the shepherds? The lowest of the low on the social rung? Why were they the first to know? Surely a more important person SHOULD have known first, but God chose the humble shepherds.

Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of our Savior who turned the world of SHOULD on its nose. A King, born in a stable? He SHOULD have been born somewhere clean, warm, and surrounded by family - not with strangers in an animal enclosure...

All of those people with "no room in the inn", they SHOULD have made room for a young family with a baby on the absolute way.

God sent His Son into a world to turn it over - to rock it and make people remember that what SHOULD be isn't always the way that it IS.

Peace on earth is about remembering that we all live in the grace of God. There's no differentiation between who SHOULD be blessed and who SHOULD not - God loves His children. Each and every one. Christmas is a time to free the captives, feed the poor, and be redeemed.

If we can't let go of the desire to punish and dole out the treatment that people SHOULD get, then maybe we're not ready to celebrate the birth of a Savior who came not to condemn the world, but to save it.