What Mary and Joseph reveal about being ordinary people loved extravagantly by God.

Every year around this time, I start to feel that familiar tension: wanting to give my family a beautiful Christmas while also wanting to stay grounded, stay simple, and stay faithful. Maybe that is an Ashland thing. Maybe it is a Brethren thing. Maybe it is both.

We come from a people who do not mind being ordinary. We value what is simple and steady. We are not really wired for extravagance. It does not sit easily with us.

But this week a simple phrase lodged itself in my head and would not leave:

“Christmas is not about need. Christmas is about love.”

At first, I thought it was just gift-giving wisdom, the idea that you buy the gift people want rather than the one you think they need. As the words kept circling back, they opened something deeper. They uncovered something true about the Bethlehem story and, maybe, something true about us.

Mary and Joseph: Ordinary People Asked to Receive an Extraordinary Gift

If anyone understood simple living, it was Mary and Joseph. They were not wealthy or prominent. They were not trying to be anything more than faithful to God and faithful to each other.

In many ways, they resemble the kind of people who fill our Brethren pews. They were steady, humble, and hardworking. They were not chasing attention.

Yet these are the exact people God chooses to trust with His most extravagant gift.

Not because they needed it.
Not because their résumé made them obvious candidates.
Simply because God loves to give Himself, and He loves to give Himself to ordinary people.

There is nothing utilitarian about the Incarnation. It is not businesslike or efficient. It is love poured out far beyond what anyone could earn.

Mary and Joseph did not ask for Jesus. They simply received Him.

Seeing Ourselves in Their Story

We forget that part sometimes. We read the story every year, but we often hold it at a distance. Mary and Joseph become the subjects of stained-glass windows instead of people who reflect our own lives.

But maybe part of Christmas is allowing ourselves to stand in their place for a moment.

We are the ones who receive grace we did not see coming.
We are the ones entrusted with the presence of Christ in ordinary life.
We are the ones surprised again and again by a love we could never deserve.

The whole story turns not on what Mary and Joseph achieved, but on what they were willing to receive.

That is our story too.

The Christmas Tension We Feel as Families

This may explain why so many of us feel torn during this season. We want to be faithful and live simply. At the same time, we want to give our families moments of joy that stay with them.

Brethren people do not always know what to do with extravagance.
Yet the gospel itself is extravagant.

So perhaps the question is not whether our Christmas is big or simple, loud or quiet. Perhaps the question is what story we are telling with it.

If Christmas is about love, then our giving, whatever shape it takes, can echo the God who delights in giving good gifts.

Not because they are needed.
Not because they are earned.
But because love gives freely.

Receiving What We Never Earned

The older I get, the more I realize that the hardest part of Christmas might not be the giving. It might be the receiving. It might be letting ourselves believe that God really does love us that much.

That God came near.
That God came small.
That God came to us.

Christmas reminds us that we did not need to climb our way to God. God came to us because love always moves first.

And love, by its nature, is extravagant.

A Season to Rest in Love

As you plan, give, shop, wrap, pray, or simply make it through another December, hold this close:

Christmas is not about need. Christmas is about love.

A love given to a simple couple in Bethlehem.
A love given again to ordinary people like us.
A love we are invited not to earn, but to receive.

Respectfully Submitted,
Patrick Sprague
Member, North Central Regional Leadership Team