We’re still celebrating the 12 days of Christmas (until Epiphany) and I’ll confess Advent/Christmas is my favorite season in the Church. Yes, Easter is when the full saving power of God comes to us in Christ who dies for us and we are given the Eucharist at the last supper. Christmas, however, is when God shows us exactly how He is used to working in the world. That is a source of real hope for the whole of our lives. Especially when everything looks like it has gone wrong and there is little hope.

The coming of Jesus the messiah is foretold for hundreds of years by the prophets and foreshadowing of the Old Testament. It’s not hard to understand people were expecting another Moses or David who overthrew enemy armies and freed them from slavery – giving them a promised land to live on and freeing them from slavery to other nations.

Instead Jesus came to free us in a very different and much better way. Jesus didn’t come into the world as the kind of conqueror or revolutionary activist that anyone expected. We see people clamoring for, and even starting, revolts against the Roman occupation. Even Jesus own disciples keep asking when Jesus will overthrow the Romans (Acts 1:6-7). But Jesus again and again points them back to the true nature of freedom.

Instead, He established a new kingdom – not based on land or borders, but a promised land of freedom in our hearts where the true king, Jesus, would dwell every day with you. It would be a profound intimacy in which the full presence of God’s three persons will dwell in us, love us, and show us how to love others in our own hearts. That love and real living in Truth in our very being frees us from the futile things that actually enslave us and destroy our world: greed, hatred, unforgiveness, hurt, violence, and hopelessness.

But just like the earliest disciples, we can absolutely miss Jesus’ arrival if we aren’t aware of how God likes to comes into our lives.

When God, who created the entire universe and all of us, wants to send a savior to us – he doesn’t appear magically and just wipe away our problems like a lottery ticket. Instead, he decides to come in full human form – starting as a single cell embryo in his mother’s womb, being carried through a normal pregnancy, and born just like us. He enters creation as it is – and not in a palace or by magically changing how things are. This in itself is a powerful message of just how much he loves us and all He has created.

He is born to an unwed mother – who’s betrothed fiance nearly abandons her when faced with an unexpected pregnancy he knew wasn’t his. Jesus is born on the road in a city Mary may never have been too. The whole reason for the trip was due to a census required by the occupying Roman military force.

There was no reservations at a hospital or hotel – He is born in a barn that was likely just an open-air covering next to an existing house or part of a cave. There were no doctors/midwives, no anesthesia, no preparation, no family or friends – just her and her husband in an animal barn that likely smelled and was filthy. This means He is easy to miss if we are looking in flashy presentations, in wealth, or in big signs or wonders.

Joseph was a blue-collar worker of humble means. In Greek, Joseph is described as a τέκτων – tekton – a craftsman or builder of stone/wood/etc. Joseph would likely be a construction worker or bricklayer of today. Certainly not a social media, Hollywood, or political star. When Jesus is brought to the temple his parents could only offer a pair of turtledoves/pigeons – which was what the poorest families offered. It means they could not even afford a whole lamb.

They quickly needed to flee to Egypt to escape the persecutions of Herod. They lived as political refugees in Egypt for years – likely struggling to make ends meet, faced prejudices, and likely had no friends or family to help raise their child. They likely didn’t even have a temple or place to worship and connect with other Jews.

When they returned, they settled in Nazareth in Galilee – an area considered to be the ‘hick’ area of Israel. People recognize the disciples as being from the area by the way they speak – probably much like people recognize Southern accents. When Jesus calls his first disciples, even Nathaniel scoffs at Nazareth as a nothing backwater (“Nathan′a-el said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see”. (John 1:46)).

All this is to say this is how God likes to answers our prayers and come into our lives. Jesus’ life was the meanest start with no power, no money, no status. Instead, He comes anonymously, quietly – in a barn full of stench and disarray.

And that’s often just what our lives are like when we need Him most.

We often fill our hearts with all kinds of similar things. We may be in an ugly structure of a life leaning against or built on professional pride or greed for money, houses, or power and positions at work. We are filled with the dirty straw and broken furniture of family members estranged by neglect or hurtful words/actions, marriages that lack love and charity, or ignoring the needy all around us, foreigners, or people we disagree with politically or in our workplace. We may even have the most base filth of ourselves as well: sins of adultery, substance abuse, pornography, and passions we are slaves too.

But this is just the place that Jesus is used to coming into. If he can come into the world in a barn of the meanest sort, He is showing us He will come into our lives – no matter what is going on.

Evil (pride, ego, and guilt) wants you to be embarrassed and hide these things from Him or even let others tell you that these things are all fine (when we know in our hearts they are not). They want to tell Him there is no room in your inn and push Him down the road. But Jesus is ready to be born not just at an inn, but in the worst, most filthy barns of our lives. Christmas is celebrated in the shortest, darkest days of winter because He wants to come exactly when we need Him in our hearts the most.

It is sometimes hard to invite Jesus into these nasty and hurt corners of our life. Especially during the holidays with family. Sometimes we don’t feel worthy or feel too broken to want to accept His presence and love. Sometimes we’re unable to get things out of our lives like addictions – which might need both God and medical help. As creations of spirit and physical body – sometimes we need care for both at the same time.

It might also be because we don’t want to give up our pain or hurts. Ironically, we sometimes like to hold onto those things that are killing us. Hate is often more fun to hold onto than the work of relationships. Sometimes we avoid it out of fear of what our lives would look like if we started living freely without that pain. Others are simply not interested in reconciliation and are happy to hurt or ignore others.

Many today think they’re doing just fine on their own and don’t need Jesus – despite the growing scientific proof about the increasing emptiness and hopelessness we feel.

But it’s not just the things in our hearts – these push outwards into our lives. Maybe we recognize the work we’re doing is immoral or hurting people. Is Jesus a part of our work day in both the business decisions and how coworkers are treated? Perhaps we’re in a relationship we should not be in for our state in life, or is based on using someone to get what we want. Have we invited Jesus into our sexual lives fully?

Do we invite Christ to come into our hearts all day when making work choices or deciding how to respond to others? Do we invite Jesus to help us when faced with a tough choice – or what to say when someone cuts you off in traffic?

All of these things are an opportunity for Christmas – to invite Jesus into your world. No matter how unsightly it is. Trust me – as he showed with his own birth – He is used to it. It is an excellent challenge to think of something you are struggling with or an old hurt – and purposefully invite Jesus to come into that part. His coming will likely not be a huge, magical fix- but a quiet arrival that slowly changes our world. If we stay committed to it.

Christ is used to coming into the meanest and most difficult parts of our lives and world. Invite Him into just one new area of yours – and experience Christmas all year.