If you asked me to share a Christmas memory from my childhood, I could tell you about the year there was a large box under the tree with my name on it. And when I opened it, inside was a beautiful doll that I had wanted so badly.

I could also tell you about when I was the “star” of our church’s Christmas pageant, when I was chosen to hold the star at the very top of a large tree-shaped, multi-tiered platform filled with a children’s choir. I found out years later that my father, the director of the performance, chose me for the “starring” role because if I fell from my perch atop the tree, there would not have been a lawsuit. (My family has laughed at this many times over the years.) 

Or I could tell you about a play I attended with my family about Christmas Eve at the North Pole. The performers were dressed as elves, all scurrying around as they got ready for Santa’s big trip. I remember quite clearly one elf, dressed in green with pointy shoes and bells on her hat, running back and forth across the stage saying, “There’s so much I have to doooooo!”

Making a List

That phrase and the silly way the elf said it have stayed with my family over the years. Quite often, when one of us was feeling overwhelmed, we repeated the phrase. 

So during university exams, I would take a break from studying to call my parents and lament, “There’s so much I have to doooooo!” When our son was young, and our house looked like a small tornado had whipped through, I would say, “There’s so much I have to doooooo!” And now, when work deadlines, family responsibilities and a hundred other things need my attention, that little elf’s voice still rings in my ear.

Do you ever feel like you have a lot to do? Are you like me, a person who makes “to-do” lists and refers back to them regularly to cross off the things that have been accomplished? Have you ever completed a task that was not on your list and then gone back to add it to the list, just to have the satisfaction of crossing it off? 

I am guilty as charged. 

Christmas can be such a stressful time. Shopping, wrapping, baking, travelling, the list goes on. There’s so much we have to doooooo! (OK, I’ll stop now.)

Setting the List Aside

Perhaps that’s how the innkeeper felt on the first Christmas night so long ago when Joseph knocked on his door looking for a place for his very pregnant wife, Mary, to rest. The Bible tells us in Luke 2 that the young couple had travelled from Nazareth in Galilee to Bethlehem in Judea in response to a decree from Caesar Augustus that a census be taken of the entire Roman world, and they must have been exhausted.

The innkeeper could have said, “Seriously? You need a room for the night? Do you know how many people are in Bethlehem for the census? There’s so much I have to do!” Instead, he put aside the many things he had to do and made his way outside to prepare a place in his stable for Mary, Joseph and the baby who would be born that very night. If he had remained focused on the long list of things he had to do, he would have missed the opportunity to play a part in the arrival of Jesus, God’s Son. 

So, set aside your to-do list this holiday season and, like the innkeeper, find an opportunity to connect with Jesus, the baby who was born that first Christmas night to be the Saviour of the world. 

Photo: Pixel-Shot/stock.Adobe.com

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