Mary, Martha and Maisie do Christmas
It was the last weekend before Christmas at the Bethany household...
"Let's spend some time with God together," said Mary. "We could go for a walk in the woods, or sing some carols?"
"I can't!" said Martha, "I've only got today left to make all the mince pies, buy the extra gifts for Lazarus's kids (I can't believe they invited themselves last minute), clean the oven and find some bangs for my handmade crackers."
"I can't," said Maisie, "I still don't have anything good to wear tomorrow night for my work party, and I'm really exhausted, so I need to eat Celebrations and watch Elf again."
"I'll light the advent candle," said Mary. "Jesus thank you that You are with us, Light of the World."
"Look at the state of that tree," said Martha, "It's dropped needles all over the carpet. I'll have to clean all that up, and those lights need rearranging."
"Look at my Christmas list!" said Maisie, "The top 3 items have gone back to half price, so I'll have to search for some more gloves and face cream to ask for..."
"Why is no one helping me?" asked Martha plaintively.
Mary spent some time with Jesus by herself to love Him, thank HIm and draw strength from Him.
Then I'm sure she helped Martha out with the hoovering.
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The festive season is a classic Mary/ Martha time, isn't it? There are so many "preparations that have to be made" as Luke describes Martha's distractions in his gospel story. Society pushes us to idealise this one Christian celebration into a perfect day that brings magic to our families, charity to our relationships and pleasure and satisfaction to our appetites for food, fun and possessions.
I am generally a classic Martha at this time of year. I'm a busy mum and I love Christmas. I love the twinkle of my home when it's beautifully decorated and the faces of my children when they open the perfect gift in their stockings. I love a creative project and I'm not immune to the feeling that my house should also somehow be cleaner than usual!
But so little of this pressure to make everything perfect has anything to do with the gospel or the deep truth of Jesus' incarnation. Our society spins Christmas into a vehicle for selling us more and more products each year. Not only the gifts and food and decorations, but now the fancy advent calendars with expensive gifts, the Christmas Eve boxes for kids, the extra Christmas jumpers and earrings and reindeer slippers. Some people even have a whole different set of kitchen items to use at Christmas!
All this expenditure of money and time often does nothing to remind us that a baby was born in a hot and war torn country long ago. It doesn't show us how that event brought the kingdom of God by stealth into the brokenness of Earth and how God Himself stepped through a rupture in the nature of things, into our brokenness.
But there are some steps we can take to be more "Mary". First of all there is busyness that we can and should ditch. Talk to God about it. Some things are good for us and for others and we can worship Him by doing them. However, for many of us, our December is probably too busy for our hearts to thrive and to spend quality time with God. Can you skip something- buy pre-made food, miss an event, watch one less Christmas movie, and spend those hours with God instead? Sit at His feet and give Him the chance to restore your soul.
As I've hinted, for most of us, God is not likely to call us to fully opt out of society during the whole of December. Jesus said in Luke 10:42 "Few things are needed - or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from her." We will always need the "one thing" of intimacy with Jesus - that will always be the best - and often hardest - thing for us to choose. But God does also call us to live in family, to serve others and to celebrate the good things He's given us. How can we still choose the "one thing needed" while doing these seasonal tasks that we can't drop? When we are serving others we can offer these acts to God and ask for His presence. As we buy or make gifts, we can focus on Jesus, God's greatest gift of all. As we decorate our home with lights we can remember "The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world." (John 1:9) Christmas also gives us more opportunities than usual to directly bring God's kingdom into the world by singing words of his truth on the streets, or serving or giving to charity more readily than usual. We can find God in all of these moments if we take the time to look.
I introduced Maisie into my modern day story (hopefully this was not a heretical act) to demonstrate another temptation many of us may face during December. This is the temptation to seek our own pleasure and comfort - the perfect presents, the best social media posts, the best outfit, or breakfast, or self care routine. Of course, again, it's not bad to want to look after ourselves and rest a bit during December. But our materialistic culture makes this almost a competitive sport, and the comfort and distractions of modern life can keep our hearts away from Jesus. Let's keep emulating Mary and her desire to spend her time with Him. But if there's a Martha in your life, who always makes your Christmas special, then can you consider how you can show Jesus' love to them? (Let's be honest, this is probably your mum we're talking about.) Can you go the extra mile to help out, to see their efforts or to make them a cup of tea when they need it?
Let's get rid of distraction, get rid of guilt and obligation, and sit at Jesus' feet together this December.
Olga_Gavrilova | Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto