Seven Pounds

For unto us a child is born…Isaiah 9:6

Merry Christmas…yes…it’s still really Christmas!  In fact it’s only the 5th day of Christmas!  I want you to hold on the whole season and celebrate the gift.  I was in the store yesterday and they had Valentine candy out already and I wanted to throw a hissy fit!  Instead of packing everything away and moving on we need to savor the season that just began on the 25th.  Let’s take some time to focus our thoughts and prayers on God’s gift of perfect love; His Son.  Love is, after all the only reason God could possibly have for lavishing such a sinful people with such an extraordinary gift.  I was struck by a thought at Christmas Eve Mass; the farther our culture separates from God and His love, the more out of balance things get.  It seems easier to expect the world around us to change rather than put our priorities in order and ask God for the grace and mercy to make changes in our own life.  If each of us had an overwhelming desire to love and serve Him first and ourselves second, the world would change in an instant.

As I sat with my beautiful family Christmas Eve staring at the Baby Jesus in the manger I realized many things have come along over the years that have changed the world.  Henry Ford’s Model-T weighed 1,450 pounds and it changed the way the world moved.  The first washing machine weighed over 250 pounds and it made cleaning things easier. The first computer weighed nearly one ton and it gave the world access to more knowledge and communication.  As valuable, helpful and convenient as these and other modern changes are, they haven’t always changed our life for the better.  In fact sometimes changes in our world just muddy up the water and clutter our focus.  Bigger, faster and more convenient isn’t always better.  Sometimes all these changes lead us away from the love, peace and joy God sent His Son to this earth to bring us.

The most significant change for the people of God’s earth weighed only seven pounds and arrived in the most humble surrounding imaginable.  There was no high impact marketing scheme to prepare us for His arrival.  There was no multi-million dollar Super Bowl commercial to get us all hyped up about His coming.  There was simply a seven pound miracle that came to change EVERYTHING!  If we would embrace it and all the Christ Child brought us, we could move through our days with hearts overflowing with joy. We would travel through life here on earth more easily than the first passengers in a Model-T. If we opened ourselves to God’s mercy and forgiveness, we would be washed whiter than any garment to pass through even the most efficient washing machine.   If we would share the love that little seven pound wonder came to bring us, we would speak and act with more wisdom and knowledge than any computer could generate.  Maybe, if we would slow down this Christmas Season to absorb the absolute Wonder and Awe of the coming of Christ, we would begin to find our balance and see that God sent His Son to earth to change us significantly.

  A seed to plant: Take time this Christmas to gaze at the Christ Child in the manger and ask God to help you see what changes are needed to draw closer to Him.  It’s ok to start small, after all the biggest change ever only weighed seven pounds.  

Blessings on your day!