I feel “meh” this Christmas. Two years of Covid, no one over, family health issues, ever increasing derranged thinking by folks, and watching injustice “win” in so many ways has taken its toll. I know, in so many ways, I have things really good—close friends, a loving community, Jen is doing OK, and our needs are taken care of. And yet, here I am, in the place of “meh.”

That makes it difficult to write a meditation for Christmas Eve.

“This great thing happened!”

“Meh.”

But I was pondering last night, as my wife and I watched yet another cringe-worthy Netflix Christmas Romance Movie, about how I was feeling “meh.” And I started to wonder something.

We’ll often talk about about the people who cry out to God, looking for the Messiah, during Advent/Christmas. And that’s right to do because it’s part of our story. And sometimes we’ll talk about people who enjoyed the status quo when Jesus arrived on the scene of history, and that’s also something that’s right to talk about because it’s also part of our story.

But we almost never talk about the people, in biblical times or today, who life has just beaten down so much that they don’t know how to cry out any more. They do not enjoy the status quo, but there’s nothing left in the tank to buck it. They’re the people of “meh.” They just hang on as best they can, until the next day begins.

And maybe their existence part of the point of Christmas.

We live in a world that’ll beat us down every chance we get, and after a while the survival strategy becomes “meh.” Not too high, not too low, just…non-committal.

Meh.

And the Second Person of the Trinity looked into a world where “meh” became peoople’s defense against the hostile forces arrayed against them and said, “Yes, I want to be there, with them, in that. And I’m going to redeem it.”

And since the moment Jesus was born in a manger he’s never left us.

I find that rather remarkable. Jesus has chosen to walk with us even in the “meh.” So just know, if you don’t “feel christmasy” this year because everything is ”meh.” It’s ok. Because Jesus walks with us in this space just as Jesus walks with us everywhere else. And even “meh” will be made new.

Merry Christmas, everyone.