This week is Christmas and while for many people it’s incredibly stressful, I try to shut out the noise, frantic pace, and distractions and reflect on what I call “A Simple Christmas.”

That’s the title of a book I wrote several years ago and it remains perhaps my favorite of the 14 books I’ve written. It’s a very personal and transparent account of my experiences of Christmas from my childhood forward. The process of writing it was therapeutic for me in unlocking some deep-seated and even some deeply buried emotions of the experiences of my Christmases.

The over-arching theme is that to truly capture the spirit of the first Christmas, we need to keep it simple. The original Christmas was not one of parades, expensive costumes, spectacular music or choreographed production. It was a story that from all appearances, was a complete disaster. A girl named Mary, probably about 14 years old became pregnant while engaged to a teenage boy named Joseph who probably was 16 or 17. She swore to all that she was a virgin and the baby in her womb was fathered by God Himself. Her betrothed Joseph knew he was not the baby’s father and had to believe that Mary was telling the truth. Even if her family and friends wanted to believe her, it was hard to accept such a claim. In what seemed like insult to injury, she and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem for a census, which is so typical of government to make the entire population travel to their town of birth rather than have a few government census takers do the count where the people were. So off to Bethlehem they went and while there, Mary went into labor and because there were no decent accommodations to be found, had to take refuge in a little cave where animals were being kept. Her birth wasn’t a “Silent Night.” It would have been marked by the same terrified screams of a young girl giving birth to her baby while surrounded by animals. Add an equally unprepared and frightened teenage boy. While our church Christmas pageants try to romanticize the moment in sweet and soft songs like “Away in a Manger” in fact the baby Jesus was placed in the very trough that sheep, goats and cattle ate from. Far from a pristine delivery of a King surrounded by attendants and servants, the son of God entered into this world in the humiliating environment of a dirty cave and placed in a feeding dish used by animals. But the prophets foretold that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem and so he was. But his entrance to our planet from heaven was a reminder that there is no place so disgusting, so low, so unattractive that God would be unwilling to get to in order to show us He loves us. His love is not just for the High places, but to the lowest places. No matter your condition, you can never say, “God couldn’t possibly love ME. I’m not worthy of His love. He would NEVER come looking for ME. In fact, He’s already been to the depths of human existence looking for you.

So keep your Christmas “simple.” A perfect meal and a perfect tree, and a perfect gift is wonderful but if everything you plan goes sideways, you can still have a Christmas that takes you to the very heart of God. The first Christmas seemed to be a colossal mess, but it was just the way God planned it. Not a spectacular event, but a simple one. And it’s why I am NOT hoping your Christmas will be the biggest, best, and most expensive extravaganza in your neighborhood. I am praying that you will keep it SIMPLE. Just absorb the unlimited love of the Creator of the universe as He affirms that He loves you so much that He didn’t send a book or an emissary or stage a dazzling production. He came in person. And He came to a place that seemed disgusting, but was proof no person was outside the scope of His love. That is Christmas. A Simple Christmas. And I hope it’s the kind you have.