Sleeping in heavenly peace?

Christmas carols are probably the most telling sign of the times (of year, that is). Apart from, maybe, the highly anticipated annual John Lewis & Partners Christmas advert. I love carols as much as anyone; partly because it's a massive chunk of my job (especially at this time of year) and partly because of the history behind each carol. I find it fascinating to hear how different cultures and countries celebrated and communicated the Christmas message through music and song over the ages.

However, there are also others who walk among us... The Purists. The Historians. The Historically Correct. The Historically Correct Purist Historians (for lack of a better name...) who notice the discrepancies between what we sing, what we assume about the Christmas message, and what actually happened at the time of Christ's birth. And with great self-control they bite their tongues rather than ruin some carols (and therefore Christmas) for those enjoying them... for the most part at least.

So, in the spirit of truth and righteousness, I too tried to scrutinise the lyrics to some of the better known carols. The well-known Silent Night caught my eye (and ear) and I started wondering how much 'heavenly sleep' Joseph, Mary and the baby Jesus really got that first night.

Silent night, holy night
All is calm, all is bright
Round yon Virgin Mother and Child
Holy Infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Not only that. I also wondered what it must have felt like to sleep for the first time since the beginning of time, space and space-time (or, as some may say, from the beginning of creation). Think about it. This is the first time God would feel what it is like to close His eyes and let Himself drift off to sleep. Remember that God doesn't sleep. Never have. Psalm 121:3-4 says:

"He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep."

So either God experienced sleep for the first time on that beautiful first Christmas, or He was the absolute worst kind of baby to new parents: a baby that never sleeps nor slumbers...

The truth is that none of us really knows what it was like, exactly, because none of us were there. And so we (humans) do what we always do with a partial picture: we colour in the blank spaces between what we know and believe to be true with the multi-coloured crayons of interpretation. Some of us go outside of the lines and some of us choose to write our own story rather than colour it in. And thus we come up with songs describing a peacefully sleeping newborn in a stable, proud new parents who seem to take everything in their stride, unexpected visitors with dirty clothes and smelling of sheep, unexpected guests bearing foreign gifts that may seem odd for a baby, and a God who makes everything perfect for His only begotten Son's birth.

And, in keeping with tradition, we project ourselves into this slightly discoloured image of the first Christmas and find our own mess, our own smelliness, our own gifts, our own overwhelming circumstances, our own hopelessness of homelessness as unbefitting for a King of Christ's standing. We see the beautiful paintings of that night and we can't relate. We sing the excuisite songs about the perfection of that royal birth and we struggle to believe that the King of Heaven can understand anything of our own flawed reality. And we would be wrong. We're wrong exactly because Christ did experience sleep that night. He became fully human, because we are not able to become good enough to become fully God.

We are all idiots. None of us are worthy of hosting the King of kings. And yet Jesus loves each one of us as we are. Not because we are worthy, or good enough, or because we somehow made our lives look as pretty as an expensive German nativity scene. He loves us because He is God. John 3:16-17 says this:

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

We are imperfect idiots, yes. But we are loved by God Himself. And we have the opportunity to become His children, regardless of whether we have it all sorted out or not. You and I are loved. We are cherished. We are precious to the Almighty Creator.

May we be reminded this Christmas that we are loved as we are. May we find joy amidst the madness of last-minute Christmas shopping. May we experience God as Immanuel; God with us. And may we receive the heavenly peace; whether we agree with the accuracy of the carol or not.