On Christmas Eve I read a moving talk by Elder Holland given in 1976. In the talk he discusses how mixed up and wrong the first Christmas must have appeared. Two teenagers, far away from home, in a dirty barn, shepherds coming to gawk. That is not how it should have looked in preparation for the Savior of the world to come. Elder Holland articulated my problem. I have an idea of how Christmas should look, how my family should look. Then I feel resentful and disappointed when my life more resembles the dirty barn. This Christmas was no exception. My carefully purchased, matching Christmas Church ties went unused for my oldest two boys. Wilson wasn’t present for any of the family gatherings. Cooper dropped the fbomb on me in a spew of verbal vomit hours before our Rippy family Christmas dinner. Christmas was pocked with contention, ingratitude and confusion. It’s not the way I thought it should look. Here was the reality:
The scriptures do not record Mary and Joseph complaining. In fact, Mary’s response to the angel was totally faithful, accepting and humble. As an avid anticipator and planner I must figure out a way to accept how things turn out without attaching expectation. The greatest event in history didn’t look right, but it was right. It didn’t look perfect, but it was. The same could be said for the Lundberg Christmas.
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