Bless This Mess

I've been looking all over for one of these old signs that you used to see for sale in the stores. I always, of course, thought it referred to my house. It still very well could.

But I have learned since then, as I've relearned the spirituality of my chosen religion (and not just the rules and regs!), that the mess refers to me.

During advent and the coming Christmas season, things are really in a mess. It's dark, and for many of us, it's cold and dreary. Days are short, nights are long. Spiritually, some of us are in other kinds of darkness. If we live in homes where addiction is still active, holiday time can be a living hell. We feel a mess.

The story of the nativity talks about the mess, too. Here's a couple having to make a long unexpected journey just before she's to deliver her first child. They can't find a place to sleep and the woman, on top of everything, goes into labor.

Her child is born in a barn in the company of animals. His first bed is a bed a straw.

Can anything seem more messy?

And yet, from that mess, comes the grace of new life, of hope for the world, of light. Gradually, the days become longer and warmer. And gradually, our hearts are renewed by the story of a family who didn't have everything come easily to them. They struggled, just as we often struggle. We aren't alone in that struggle.

And from the mess of life often comes the grace.

How often from a terrible situation has something wonderful happened?

That's the grace from the mess.

That's the message of this season, no matter whether you call it Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all except the dead of winter!!

And so I'm looking for "Bless This Mess." Because now I appreciate the mess. I am grateful for the mess. The mess is like a diamond in the rough, like tunnels of opal, gleaming all around me.

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