The holidays are always fraught with stress, and sometimes the feeling of Christmas that we all love and long for gets lost in the stress of seasonal activities.

Seasonal activities. We get so busy we sometimes forget “the reason for the season.” What is the reason for the season? It surely wasn’t intended to create stress. So what is the reason for the season? It’s an unusual, awesome story.

An angel asks a teenage girl if she would agree to become the mother of God’s Son. She agrees, leaving her with the task of telling her fiancée about the miracle, hoping that he would believe her. With God’s help, he does. A few months later comes the daunting task of traveling seventy-plus miles to Bethlehem because the governor has ordered a census…and Mary is almost full term in her pregnancy! When they arrive at their destination, the Promised Child was born in a stable, with his first bed in an animal’s feeding trough! Now that’s stress!

Christmas Eve is only a few days away. In the evening there will be worship services in many towns and cities. And for a brief hour or so, we will leave the world behind and worship the baby King who knows all our stresses. His appearing in a stable reminds us that He even shows up in the strangest of places, and he always has room for us. May you meet Him again this Christmas and worship Him with a new heart.

About the author: Previously the priest at St. Francis of Assisi in Lake Placid for 21 years, Rev. Elizabeth L. Nelson is now the Priest at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in LaBelle.