Most of us have images in our mind of the first Christmas. The peaceful scene with Joseph and Mary serenely gazing down on the sleeping Baby in the manger.

But the truth is, those images barely resemble the reality of that first Christmas. We have sanitized the story to the point that it’s just a myth or fairy tale. It’s become so familiar to us that we need to see it afresh.

What did the first Christmas really look like? It looked like a mess. Especially from Mary’s perspective. We have the benefit of two thousand years of hindsight, but Mary didn’t.

When you strip away the idea that it all made sense and would turn out for the best, you begin to see things with Mary’s eyes. How much did she really understand?

I imagine Mary, like any girl, had dreams about how her life would play out—her betrothal, her wedding day, maybe nine months later, a baby shower.

Instead what she encountered was scandal, gossip, and heartache. Virgins don’t have babies! It was all so irrational and hard to comprehend.

Strip away the imaginary silence of that first night. “Away in a manger . . . no crying He makes.” Really? The trauma of childbirth is anything but silent.

Strip away the look of joy and peace on Mary’s face. Why did they not have a reservation? And why could no one give up a guest room? She was giving birth to the future King! It was her first baby, so labor probably was hard, long, and exhausting. If you’ve ever witnessed it firsthand, you know that in the hours after childbirth, no one looks like the Mary you find on Christmas cards.

Strip away the tidiness. It was messy. I’ve seen the dirty hands and unwashed faces of shepherds. I’ve seen sheep and oxen in close quarters.

Yes, it was messy, just like your life and my life. There is the mess we inherited as humans, there are messes we ourselves create, and there are messes that come and blindside us out of the blue.

Mary had imagined her life would be a certain way, and it wasn’t that way in real life.

In reality, every plan has the potential to go off the rails. Mary and Joseph had to accept the changes they didn’t get a vote on. The same is often true for you and me. We have a plan . . . and whoosh it changes! Proverbs 16:9 says that we can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps.

You might look at your Christmas, or your life for that matter, and it’s not going to plan. God’s plans are not making sense and it looks like nothing more than a mess. The good news is you don’t have to understand fully in order to obey Him. Like Mary, you can embrace the change, even through the pain, when you know God has a purpose.

It isn’t what you think.
It isn’t what you planned.
But it is better than you imagine.

Mary was planning a wedding, but God was planning to send a Savior into the world.

Don’t let your plans make you miss God’s purpose. Mary didn’t. Her response to the angel was, “May it be to me as you have said.”

I want us to look at messed-up plans as blessed interruptions. By faith, we can celebrate before we understand. We can offer a sacrifice of praise for the beauty that will come out of the messes in our lives.

Stop chasing your plan A and let God have His plan A. He can handle the mess. He walks with us through it. Emmanuel, God with us. That is why Jesus came to this earth. Not so we could have parties, decorate our homes, and go shopping. He came to this earth to die on the cross to clean the mess of our sins, because He loves us.

For Mary, it didn’t look so pretty, like what she hoped it would. And right now, your story may not look like what you hoped. But God invites us into His story. He wants to do something wonderful for you, and it will be better than you can imagine.