It’s Christmas and time to share one of my favorite Christmas stories from the Bible at Luke 10:38-42. You know the one about the two sisters, Mary and Martha. Jesus came to dinner and Martha was stressed because she was doing all the work and Mary was sitting by Jesus listening to him as he spoke to the disciples and that made Martha even more stressed? Right?

Not a Christmas story, you say? Well, let’s call my story an application rather than a strict interpretation.

So, Martha is stressed, and she goes to Jesus to “woe-is-me” a little bit and she asks that he intervene and give Mary a good talking to. After all, wouldn’t he agree that Mary should be helping?

“But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…”

Now, when I was young and mama said my name twice in a row like that, it either meant that I had done something wrong for which I was about to be punished, or maybe I looked too forlorn for words, and she was just gonna give me a big hug. I think that’s what Jesus was gonna do – give Martha a great big hug to help her settle down a bit and remember that she was talking to someone who loved her dearly but who wasn’t going to be there with her forever. I’m not sure that’s what Martha was expecting him to do though.

I can certainly understand all her stress. After all, it is Christmas, and there is so much to do. Why, if there’s to be any kind of joy when Christmas Day gets here, someone has got to get cracking and get things done. There are plans to be made, presents to buy, cakes and cookies to bake, and at some point, someone is going to have to get that tree up and decorated. Why, if I had started all this back in October when the Walmart starts putting out their Christmas decorations, I’d still not have time to get everything done. My “inner” Martha is totally rolling now and I am pretty anxious, but I can do this. I just need some lists (I’m big on making lists) – task lists, budgets, grocery lists, present lists – why just for cookies & cakes alone, we need flour, sugar – regular and powdered, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger….lots of spices. And there’s presents. What do the children want this year? I just don’t have a clue – I’m not sure socks and hats are going to be at the top of their lists although these things would always be needed and appreciated, I’m sure. The lists are endless and money shorely doesn’t grow on trees, now does it? How will I ever get it all done? And, where’s that Mary when I need her?

“But only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Only one thing? The good portion? The love and joy part? The family part? The salvation part? The part that cannot be taken away from me? Let me think about this.

About those decorations that need to go up. Come to think of it, how pretty the tree looks this year even without all the ornaments. I remember when we made those little four-pointed stars out of Q-Tip’s and yarn? The babies’ hands were so small, and they had so much trouble getting those Q-Tips to stay together long enough to start winding the yarn all around. I had to hot glue the Q-Tips together so the yarn could even begin to go on. And there’s this wooden cross made of olive wood that we bought in that little wood-working shop over in Bethlehem right down the street from the Church of the Nativity where Jesus was born. Oh, there’s that one ornament left over from the year I decided the balls were boring so I’d bling them up with some glue and glitter – we made such a mess, had glitter all over the place – three months later, I was still sweeping that stuff out of the cracks and crevices in the kitchen. Those ornaments are all broken now except for this last one. That must have been forty or more years ago. My baby girl is all grown up now – no more help with blinging out the ornaments.

Maybe I’ll just take a moment or two and look through the mail. There’s a card from friends over in North Carolina where that storm did so much damage. What a sweet card wishing us a joyous Christmas after all they’ve lost. This one has a Bible verse, “Unto us a child is born….”, one of my favorites from Isaiah 9:6. Oh, I’ve been waiting for this – the annual Advent Devotional booklet from Dallas Seminary. It’s called “Hope” this year. You know, I think I’ll just get a mug of hot chocolate with marshmallows (of course) and sit down here by the tree and read a couple of these devotionals…..put a little Christmas music on in the background and hum along while I read –

“Come to Bethlehem and see
Him whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.”*

Hey, here comes the neighborhood Christmas parade…..”Merry Christmas”, “Merry Christmas”, they all call out as they pass me standing there by the side of the road. Oh my! How did they ever get all those packages up on top of that golf cart like that? And the twinkling lights! And there’s the old grinch bringing up the rear throwing out candy to the kids trailing along behind. What fun! “Goodbye…Merry Christmas!”

It’s so cold out here tonight but the sky is so clear, and the stars are coming out. One of those stars would be the very one that the Wise Men followed to see the new king. There are so many out tonight, which star could it be? In all creation, in all those millions of stars out there, there was just one that led them to the Lord…..just one child born that night to save us all.

The good portion……Mary chose the good portion……and it’s Christmas.

I let the joy and peace wrap around me like mama’s hug so many years ago. I remember….our children won’t always be children, our memories won’t always be sure, the music won’t always be playing in the background, our friends won’t always be close by, our parents won’t always be here with us……time will not wait for us to get it all done before we find a moment to stop and feel the wonder of it all….to consider the “good portion”.

Martha and Mary. A time for Martha. A time for Mary.

“To everything there is a season,

and a time for every

purpose under heaven:

a time to be born

and a time to die,

a time to plant

and a time to uproot,

a time to kill

and a time to heal,

a time to break down

and a time to build,

a time to weep

and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn

and a time to dance,

a time to cast away stones

and a time to gather

stones together,

a time to embrace

and a time to

refrain from embracing,

a time to search

and a time to count as lost,

a time to keep

and a time to discard,

a time to tear

and a time to mend,

a time to be silent

and a time to speak,

a time to love

and a time to hate,

a time for war

and a time for peace.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

* Angels We Have Heard on High > Lyrics | Anonymous/Unknown; Anonymous/Unknown
tr. by James Chadwick, pub.1862; French melody arr. by Edward S. Barnes; copyright status is Public Domain