Years ago I was a Gold Canyon Candle consultant. I enjoyed selling these double wick candles because their fragrance fills the room. I love when you enter a home and can smell a fragrant aroma and see a candle lit!
There was a bright red candle called "Cozy Christmas."
The company is no longer in business (sadly) However, I always remember the Pomegranate fragrance (a best seller!) and the Cozy Christmas scent (only available during Winter).
When you think of a "birthing room" the last word you would use to describe it is cozy.
Mary who is swollen, in her last trimester, is now in active labor and is about to give birth to a child, event though she never knew a man.
The first Christmas was anything but cozy.
I think it's ironic that the nostalgia and comforts and cozy atmosphere of our Christmas mornings are nothing at all like what Jospeh and Mary and our LORD, the infant Christ-King experienced.
The fragrance? Not at all like a scented candle.
The smell was pungent, putrid and disgusting.
Cow urine. Donkey doo-doo. Sheep funkiness.
The smells were anything but cozy. There were no warm sugar cookie smells or peppermint thrills or make your stomach growl ham scents coming from an oven.
The smell swirling around in the inn must have been a tinge of what our sin reeks of.
Pungent, putrid and disgusting.
Smells like wrecked marriages, tragic deaths, car accidents, miscarriage of a newborn, miscarriage of justice, loneliness, loss of job, loss of life, loss of dreams, loss of innocence, betrayal of a friend, lies, crimes, and ugly thoughts...bullying, a prodigal's blasphemy, you name the sin...Christ bore them all!
The pain of Mary, the angst of Jospeh and the fatigue of the newborn King. Everyone felt pain. Mary sore from giving birth. Joseph still in a fog as to the reality of what just happened. Baby Jesus, the cradle stall nothing like His heavenly throne...
However, a new day is coming! A dawn will break through!
A day when the Dayspring on High will reign in sublime glory! Christ the Savior is born. His sinless life pointed to His Father's approval. When the veil was torn in two, our separation anxiety was defeated. We no longer reek of sin. We now wear the robes of Righteousness. Jehovah Tsidkenu- the LORD our righteousness took the wrath of God in our stead.
The contrast of our dreamy Cozy Christmas scene with the real incarnate Lamb of God laying in a manger next to stinky smelly animals is telling. Do you really know this Jesus? Do you really celebrate His birth? Or do you just smile at the manger and say "Ah"
Christ does not ask for us to be sentimental this time of year. I believe we are to be reverent and sober minded.
It doesn't mean we can't take our kids to see Christmas lights, or dress up in ugly Christmas sweaters or bake cookies. We can do these things.
But my prayer is that we will also think of how smelly our sins are. We will marinate on this truth- Christ died to save sinners, a sinner LIKE ME.
If we look at the babe in the manger, and we sing "what Child is this?" but neglect to repent and worship Him and laud Him King of Kings and Lord of LORDs, we've missed it...for our Lamb of God was slain. That babe was born to be slaughtered for our sins.
Dr. John MacArthur notes that in Hebrews 10:20 we have a "new and living way" when we are born again. "New" is prophatos which means "freshly slaughtered." The old testament sacrificial system is done with. Now, we have Jesus the FRESH way opened up for us!
Our true comfort and peace resides not in something but SOMEONE-Jesus.
Let's Worship Him in Spirt and in Truth this Christmas and always!
