the power of the unexpected

Every time I turn my car on right now, Christmas music is playing.

I can't say that I have always listened intently to words of Christmas songs but in the past week, I have.

I've found a trend in these songs. 

In some form of words a lot of these Christian songs talk about the way that Jesus came to earth.

Unexpected, an interesting way to come into the world,  'a strange way to save the world',  songs that describe how he could have come, but instead he came 'like a winter snow, quiet, soft, and low.'

Maybe I've never truly spent time thinking about how the son of God made his 'grand' entrance into the world, but it really was anything but grand.

I know in my lifetime I have heard a variety of reasons why Jesus came to earth this way. It showed that He was a servant. That He could be on our level. That he was human and loved people. He lived a perfect life.

But this week I feel like the Lord helped me to see this differently than I ever have before.

I guess for me something that has always been important in my life and especially in times of healing, is the power of validation. 

To know that someone is acknowledging how you feel, to almost give permission to feel that way regardless if that's how they would feel in the same situation. 

In some ways, I feel like Jesus coming to earth as a baby and a human, into a world full of sin, hurt, desperation, and all that goes along with each of us at some point or another is validating.  While Jesus lived a perfect life, He walked where we walked, experienced all the temptations that we have or will, and understood all that comes with human emotion. In a moment where He felt the weight of the world, His own Father could not look at him during this time because of the sin He was carrying for us.  Talk about pain, feeling alone, and the pressure and agony involved. 

So while Jesus didn't come with glamour and all of the glory that He could have and so rightly deserved to come into, somehow his entrance into the world is validation for everything that I face in my everyday life. 

I find comfort in this.

I suddenly don't feel so alone or weird for some of the things I think and feel at times.

For being human.

I think some of us find  it almost imperative to pretend like we have it together all the time. 

I can't live this way.

Maybe  being real during my prayers doesn't feel as bad or weird cause the truth is, Jesus knows what its like to be human. Anything that I've been through or will go through, he understands. He is the mediator to my Heavenly Father. We are commanded to come boldly and confidently to the throne. 

Maybe coming to the earth the way He did is part of the reason we can find the confidence to bring our deepest hurts, desires, and longings to our Father. 

It has been refreshing this Christmas season to see it differently than I ever have before.

There is power in the unexpected way that Jesus came.

It's changing my life.

What a day it was celebrating the birth of my Savior today.