Simply worship

     One of our favorite nativity sets: old, beloved, and battered--one of the wisemen has lost half his crown, the sheep is missing part of his leg, and the shepherd's staff has seen better days.  But that's why we love this nativity--a bit bruised from the battles of life, kind of like each of us, but still brightly reflecting the wonder and glory of the night that changed everything.  As a child, I can remember carefully removing the nativity from an old shoe box, each piece wrapped in wadded up pieces of tissue paper.  Somehow Christmas had not officially begun until the smooth ivory-colored wood pieces had found their place on the coffee table at our house.  Even now, as I take out each figure, that childhood sense of wonder and joy return to me, and for just a moment,  I'm an excited 10 year old.
     But it's funny, as many years as I've put out this beautiful old nativity--first as a child growing up and now as a mom with children of my own--I'd never noticed before that every figure is worshipping the newborn King.  In fact, nearly all the characters, including the little cherub, are kneeling in adoration.  And the few that are not kneeling have their heads bowed or their hands lifted in prayer.  How on earth had I missed that before?  Busyness and preoccupation, I suppose.
     I couldn't help but think, that's what it all boils down to at Christmas, isn't it?  Not rushing around, buying the perfect presents for everyone on your list or having the ideal Southern Living decorations at home or any of the other hoopla or pressure that we put upon ourselves every year.  Nope, it's really all about worshipping the newborn King.  How can we help but have any other response to such extravagant love, such extraordinary sacrifice other than knees to the earth and thanksgiving from the heart?
     So often we get all caught up in what we think God expects from us or needs from us or demands from us.  But Christmas is not about what we can do for God... it's all about what God has done for us. Not about our goodness but about His greatness and grace.  Not about our performance but about His Perfect Love enfleshed in an infant Savior.
      The only response to such unwarranted, extravagant grace in the bestowing of the Greatest Gift is simply to accept it with humble gratitude, and then, like those figures in our nativity, to fall to our knees in adoration of our Baby-Savior.  What else can we do?   We don't deserve it.  We certainly can't earn it.
     We simply worship.  In light of the One who is so infinitely much, so overwhelmingly abundant, so "exceedingly more than all we ask or imagine," we don't work; we worship. O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord.
     Today, each day, might we worship and rejoice... for He is more than enough.  To God, the Baby-Savior and Redeemer, be all the glory.