Christmas Day - The Good enough home
I want to share with you a picture. It’s a picture from my family from a few years back and one young boy is particularly deeply engrossed in an activity requiring terrifyingly deep concentration and of the utmost importance.
This is 5 years ago. And it is a picture of my boy as he helps along with all the others (even the biggest got involved that day) in the extremely important task of building a Christmas Gingerbread house.
Now the sharper eyed, architecturally trained individuals among you might notice that this house doesn’t exactly meet the usual rules and regulations in terms of structural integrity, or even of design that would pass our planing laws.
The pieces have been glued together with icing sugar. There are large variations in the thickness of the door frames and windows. The roof tiles are bespoke- each one of them, and there must surely be quite a draft coming in through the wall, broken as it is into 3 pieces, patched together in a way similar to how I have completed DIY tasks in the past.
But- we did enjoy putting it together, and it did taste rather nice!
When we hear the gospel readings today, we are told of the story of the birth of Jesus, and that he didn’t arrive in a home that met the regulations of his time either. It certainly wasn’t the home that his mother would have chosen if she wasn’t so weak from the journey, nor his father if he wasn’t so frightened of the authorities herding them everywhere.
But in arriving in such a way, God our saviour may be telling us something about the homes we build for ourselves on the inside. And that might give us something to ponder as we look upon how we receive the Lord Jesus into our hearts anew this year.
If the King were to visit your home today. We’d be put into a panic... but, the shoes are everywhere- they haven’t dried after all the rain. The food I’ve got isn’t enough- does he even like cheese and cucumber sandwiches? And how could I call myself British if I am too frightened to make a cup of tea for the King, lest it was the wrong strength--- stew it more, no make it weak-- oh for the mercy of God don’t make it into ditch water! We would panic, I know I would.... I know what my home looks like!!
We might feel the same about the idea of inviting Jesus into the home of our hearts. We might feel concerned about the things he would see strewn around the floor there, and panic a bit lest he sees the door to the back room of our hearts is ajar- we don’t ever go there!
But let’s take a handle from the story of the stable, and from the gingerbread house to steady our nerve. When God chose to come to the land of people as a tiny human infant, she didn’t look for the biggest or the best, she chose a home that would be good enough. It was good enough that the master of all creation could be close to the animals he made. It was good enough that people of the inn would notice and make an effort to bring the resources that were needed for a safe delivery, rather than assume that someone behind a closed door was doing alright. It was good enough that the shepherds could find them easily- who could mistake the child the angels sang about when it is clearly the only one in a stable for 100s of miles around. It was good enough- dry, safe, warmer than the street. It may have been ramshackle but it worked.
When we as a family put together the gingerbread house, the icing got everywhere, sweets kept falling off the roof, and the walls needed several attempts at bracing to hold together. It was so messy, and try as we might to put it together as neatly as we could, and despite all our pride in the end results, it wasn’t perfection, our hands were sticky with the effort, but it was good enough, and in fact there was much more joy in its imperfection than anything else- for we had made it- this was our gingerbread home.
Your heart is your home. It too might feel ramshackle, or unready. But you made it, it’s yours, and it is good enough, in all the meanings of that word to welcome into your heart the Lord of the whole world.