Nutcrackers... and the Warrior Baby

Anybody ready for Christmas?  Our youngest child certainly is!  On November 1st, I walked into his room and this is what I saw:

     He had no sooner finished organizing his Halloween candy than he apparently realized it was time to go into the attic and start getting ready for Christmas.  He loves nutcrackers, and this is the lovely display of his organizational skills on the shelf in his bedroom.  So Target is not the only place that starts decorating for Christmas at Halloween.
     In fact, when I commented on his getting ready for Christmas a wee bit early, he looked at me in amazement and exclaimed, "Well, Mom, it is already November!"  Well, duh, everybody knows you are waaaaay behind if you haven't done your Christmas shopping by july and your menu, cards, and decorations ready by september.  Silly me.
      If you could see our nutcrackers up close, you would assume by their "well-used" appearance that they had cracked a whale of a lot of nuts.  Of course, none of them has ever even seen a nut. But all of our nutcrackers are banged up, dented, missing arms or swords or various appendages. This is because our boys loved to have "nutcracker wars."  Yes, in the true spirit of Christmas, they would line up  various nutcrackers in the living room and have them fire away or swing away or, I guess, chomp away.  Later, I'd walk by the empty living room and nutcrackers would be strewn all over the floor, some lying face down in an apparent advent blood bath.
     This did not contribute to an orderly home... and no one has ever called us to grace the pages of the Southern Living Christmas edition.  And we now have one sorry looking collection of battered nutcrackers.
      But some day, when our house is finally orderly and clean and peaceful,  I know that I will look at those mutilated, but well-loved, nutcrackers and cry.
     And remember... and be thankful for the privilege and the joy of raising these 5 priceless, irreplaceable souls.  And of celebrating year after year the joyous coming of the Lord Jesus into the world as a baby.  Almighty God as man wrapped in an infant's flesh. O may we never get over the wonder of that.  As our dear friend David Dwight called Him: "The Warrior Baby."  An infant come to battle satan and our sins.
     Maybe nutcracker wars are not such a bad idea after all.
     So today, let's choose to be thankful for messes and imperfections and the silly, offbeat joys of life.  For banged up nutcrackers or banged up houses or banged up expectations. And for the people that make the messes... and make the music that will sing in our memories.
     But most of all, rejoice in our Warrior Baby who came to redeem His own... and is coming again.  "For all that has been, thanks.  For all that will be, yes!" Dag Hammerskjold   Yes, Lord Jesus, come.  To God be the glory.