Christmas is not about a birthday, its about a wedding.

Often when Jim and I go to church I bring a little notebook in my purse to take notes on the homily. It helps me to jot down the thoughts and ideas that inspire and challenge as I strive to live the coming week intentionally.

Yesterday I was cleaning out my mess of a purse and came across the little journal I have been taking to church on Sunday for the last year. It is cool to look back at the things that struck me and how God used them to get my attention.

One particular page that caught my eye was what I jotted down from midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in 2013. What was so striking to me was the theme the priest used to speak about the glory of this holy night: Christmas is not about a birthday, its about a wedding. Okay technically yes it is the birth of our Savior. We hear about Joseph and Mary looking for an inn in Bethlehem and how she eventually gave birth and laid her baby boy in a feeding trough for animals. But there is something deeper here if we take time to look.

At Christmas, God and humanity become one. The two becoming one and united?...that's a marriage.

Christmas is really about desire...God's passionate desire for each one of us. Jesus wants us. God desires each of us so deeply that He entered our fallen, sinful world to take on human flesh to come be with us. Jesus came to earth to rescue us, to die for us...and ultimately to save us from ourselves. The message of Christmas? You are insanely loved. You are passionately loved. You are ridiculously loved. You are recklessly loved.

What does love want? Love wants union!! Love wants a total and complete union. God is love and He wants to be in union with us. The prophet Isaiah sums it up perfectly: "For as a young man marries a virgin, your Builder shall marry you; and as a bridegroom rejoices in his bride so shall your God rejoice in you" (Isaiah 62:5). Just as the man who waits at the end of the aisle on his wedding day for his bride, Jesus waits for each one of us.

What happens at Christmas is that God is proposing to each of us...He is ultimately popping the question. And the question? ... 

Will you be Mine?

So you see, Christmas really is ultimately about a wedding; the union of God with humankind. How each of us responds to that question from Jesus has potential to change the rest of our lives, just as a marriage proposal is life changing.

Jesus is on bended knee waiting...what will your response be?