"It’s Looking A Lot Like Christmas"

  Snow at my house.

I just need to ask, how does Christmas look?

I have watched PBS's Christmas in France. The customs varied from area to area- Paris celebrated differently than they did in the countryside. There were beautiful, snowy scenes; even a horse-drawn sleigh. Is that how Christmas looks?

Or is it the Christmas pageant with little ones dressed in shepherds robes or wearing crowns like the 3 kings? Is it the live manger scene in front of the big church downtown? Or it is the Christmas tree with colorful gifts underneath? It is midnight mass? The company party?

Having been a nurse for 50 years, I have worked many Christmases caring for sick, injured, sad, lonely, dying people? Is that how Christmas looks? 

For each of us it is different; and it may change from year to year.

As I prepare throughout Advent for the celebration of Christ's birth, I try to envision Christmas from the viewpoint of the angels, of Joseph, of the shepherds, of Mary, and so on. But I never thought of Christ's birth from His grandmother's point of view.

Guess it's because my son left today to join his family in another state. The weather is bad.  I'm not sure if he arrived safely. He may be stranded.

As a mom, I am wondering if he's in an airport or was he able to get a room? Are my grandkids okay? Do they have a place to lay their heads tonight?

Is that what  "Christmas" may have been for Mary's mother? Was she worrying about about Mary traveling when she was so close to her delivery time? Was she concerned that they'd find a place to stay? Did she realize that it would be more than days, more than even weeks or months before she'd met her grand baby? Did she understand who this baby was?

Was "Christmas" a day of continuous prayer for Mary's safety? Or had this mother disowned her daughter? Was she going to accept a baby that wasn't even Joseph's? How would she react when the King decrees that all males under two must die?

So many questions...

All I know for sure is that I want to…

¯Go Tell It On the Mountain that Jesus Christ Is Born!¯

Selah...

Think on this.

Connie