Welcoming Others Into the Mess
As we move through December’s full sparkle and January’s deep quiet, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to let people into our lives — not just when everything looks “picture perfect,” but especially when it doesn’t.
Recently, when talking with our council, someone asked me how a beloved member of our congregation was doing as she navigates a confusing and uncertain health situation. The question itself was an act of love. But what struck me most was what sits underneath that concern: the sheer grace of having people who want to be welcomed in, even when the house isn’t tidy, the dishes are undone, and the paperwork is piling on the dining room table.
In a season when every commercial and Instagram post tells us to polish up our lives until they shine like a freshly lit Advent wreath, it is a brave and sacred thing to let someone see the mess.
Because the truth is:
None of us were meant to live curated lives. We were meant to live connected ones.
The Incarnation — God choosing to dwell with us — is the ultimate expression of this. Christ was not born into a sanitized, carefully staged nativity scene. God came into a world of political turmoil, overcrowded housing, exhausted parents, and a feeding trough that probably smelled exactly like… well… a feeding trough.
God shows up in the mess.
And God teaches us to show up for one another in the same way.
So, as we enter these next two months, the festive rush of December and the deep-breath reset of January, I want to encourage you:
· Let someone come over even if you haven’t had time to clean.
· Reach out even if you feel disorganized, overwhelmed, or not quite yourself.
· Say “yes” when someone asks if you need anything, even if that’s not your usual instinct.
And be that presence for others, a safe harbor where perfection is not required.
Life is full of dishes-in-the-sink seasons, and paper-on-the-table seasons, and bewildering-diagnosis seasons. What a gift it is to have companions who step across the threshold anyway.
This winter, may you be surrounded by people who love you enough to enter the beautiful, holy mess with you, and may you have the courage to let them.
In the Light of Christ,
Pastor Gretchen