Like Everyone Forgot

In the middle of the night last night, Sam came into our room.

"Mama! Papa! My tooth came out!" he announced.  He's been wiggling this loose tooth for what seems like ages.  It's only his third ever, so he's still pretty excited about it.

I barely twitched.  "Don't wake up Pascal; whisper!" I responded automatically from the depths of tired-mama-land, "put it somewhere safe and we'll look at it tomorrow."

"But it's got blood on it," he whispered.

"Wash it off and go back to bed," Patrick replied.

Sam tiptoed back out and closed our door, went to the bathroom and washed his tooth, tucked it inside the cupboard, and went back to bed.

Patrick and I both completely forgot.

Sam was in the middle of putting on his snowpants and talking a mile a minute this morning when I noticed his missing tooth and it all came rushing back.  His tooth!  We didn't even wake up and get excited with him, we didn't even help him, we didn't anything - just shushed him and sent him back to bed as if nothing out of the ordinary happened.

And then forgot.

I can't help feeling like the same thing happened with the Christmas story.

There was this astonishing night, this star-spangled sky, angels singing, shepherds rushing away from flocks, a virgin giving birth in Bethlehem, prophets rejoicing in the temple ...

and then nothing.

It was like everyone forgot.  Everyone came down with the same middle-aged amnesia that Patrick and I have, where anything that happens before coffee is a blur.

And when He began to teach and do miracles, when He claimed to be the Son of God, I wonder ... did any shepherds nod and smile to themselves, having expected this all along?  Did any wise men direct the king to worship this man, whom they had bowed to in his infancy?

Or did they just all forget?

Do we forget?
Do we forget that God sent His Son, that He came to bear our sin, to offer full forgiveness?  Do we forget through the year that Heaven poured out its brightest gift for us on earth?

In the blur and busyness of everything we've got going on, I do.  I forget so much.
I forget my grocery list and the occasional appointment and a loose tooth and the incredible active kindness of God.

Christmas rolls around every year and reminds us:
He came! He came! He came!

Because we forget.  The ordinary blur is strong.  We need reminding.

Christmas.
God with us.

Merry Christmas, friends.
xo.