So here we are on Christmas Eve. Maybe you are one of those people who have put off shopping until the last minute. If you are, you should be facing the last pitch of retail Christmas marketing that is enticing you and your money inside stores tonight. You’ve waited too long to order it online. You’ve waited too long to drive from one store to the other to compare prices. You are a retailer’s dream customer. You have to make a purchase and you are up against a deadline. If you are one of those people, best of luck to you.

This season can feel like it is a race to the finish line that ends tonight. And what are we rushing towards? What awaits us on the other side of that finish line? Are we seeking a day of happiness, where families are full of peace and love towards each other? Are we trying to make a lasting memory that everyone will reflect upon all the rest of their lives? If so, why the rush, the push, the hectic activity that encompasses this holiday like no other? We have spent the better part of a month planning for this day. We have decorated for it, dressed up for it, burned special scented candles and propped up a dead tree upright in our houses in preparation for this day. We travel miles to spend time with family and friends on this holiday. We listen to special music for this holiday. We watch special shows that are out of place at any other time of the year. We eat foods we never eat the rest of the year. (Can you imagine serving eggnog at the Fourth of July cookout? Absurd!) So what are we looking for on this day?

I recall several years ago being on a business trip right before Christmas. I had flown to New York and was returning on Christmas Eve. I was flying out of Newark, NJ – not my favorite airport, but you can imagine the number of people traveling in and out of the New York area on Christmas Eve. It was the only flight I could find that was not already booked. My flight had been delayed and then canceled. There was a chance that I might have to spend the night away from home and fly home on Christmas Day – not something I was wanting to do. So I worked one airline against the other and managed to get a seat on a later flight. The airliner was jam packed with people. There was a long list of standby customers waiting to get on in case there were any open seats due to cancelations. The flight attendants were doing their best to get everyone into their seats. The air was hot, heavy and smelled of sweaty people. I was uncomfortably squeezed into a middle seat between two other people – again, not my favorite, but I could endure it if I could just get home. I remember just wanting the door to shut, to feel the plane being pushed away from the gate and to get into the air. Once we were in the sky, I knew I would not have to spend Christmas Eve in this dirty, stinky, people-packed airport. I knew I would make it home and all I needed to do was endure the discomfort of the flight and all would be right.

It seemed there was one delay after the other. First they boarded all of the standby customers. They had to find a seat here and a seat there. It took forever. As we went through all of the preflight rituals, the flight attendants were pointing out the escape doors to use in case we crashed. That’s when a lady sitting next to the exit said she was not comfortable opening the door in the case of an emergency. She asked to be moved. What idiot would not want the extra leg room the escape row affords them? So they found someone else to sit by the door. By the time they had her in her new seat, the captain came on the intercom and explained there was one more passenger that was going to board from a connecting flight and they were holding the plane. The entire plane began to complain. We just wanted to get home before this night was over.

That’s when I saw something that changed my perspective in an instant. The person we were waiting on entered the plane and walked past me on her way to her seat. She was a young lady and she was pregnant. She moved slowly. You could tell she was in the very last stages of pregnancy. She looked tired and uncomfortable - you could tell by the way she walked to her seat, put her bag in the overhead compartment, and buckled in for the flight. I could not help but steal glances at her throughout the flight. She and I did not talk to each other, but she spoke to me. This was not about me. This was about something much bigger than me and all of the people on that plane flying home on Christmas Eve. The pregnant lady was a reminder that, in the midst of the push to get home, there was something more to this holiday than just getting there by the deadline. There was a baby to be born, and there was peace for what ails us on the inside. This holiday – Christmas – is the reminder of that birth.

On the other side of the Christmas Eve deadline, I think there is a desire within the heart of every person to experience this peace. I know I do. I pray that you experience it as well. Have a Merry Christmas.