As a creature of habit change is not one of my favorite things.  Take last night for instance.  After my husband met us at church to make a gingerbread nativity with our kids he went out and bought me a new dishwasher because the night before the old one started leaking profusely.  Most women would be elated that their husbands came home with a new dishwasher and installed it that very night.  Me?  I was a little ornery. 

Last Christmas the microwave that we only had for 4 years blew up so we went out and bought a new one.  I still hit the “stop” button thinking it’s the “start” button because they are interchanged and still look for the “30 second” button to which there isn’t one on the new one and it’s been a year!  You’d think I could get it by now!  This year…Merry Christmas!  The dishwasher died!  I really hope this is not a Benham Christmas tradition!  When Nathan got home with Emalynn (up until 10 p.m. on a school night) I realized he didn’t just buy a dishwasher…or order one…he brought one home and started to yank the old one out with dirty dishes still in it!  Never liking it in the first place he was actually excited when it died so it’s no surprise he was in a hurry to rip it out.  However there is nothing worse at 10:30 p.m. for someone who loathes a single dirty dish in the sink to have to empty nearly an entire dishwasher of dirty dishes filling both of her sinks.  It was not fun.  There were tools, papers, boxes, the vacuum all strewn across my kitchen and two full sinks of dishes.  I wasn’t expecting a big project like that so late in the evening as I was about to collapse in exhaustion. 

My very handy husband got it installed and working before I went to bed and told me I could re-load the dirty dishes.  It is a very nice dishwasher but very different from the one I had. Loading it took at least twice as long as it normally would.  The top rack has all these funky angles and the baskets don’t have large enough slots for sippy cups lids (what’s up with that) and I was just frustrated…and tired…and hurting…and why don’t they just make all the racks the same!?  I’ve had the same racks for 10 years spanning across 2 different dishwashers in 2 different houses!  Old habits die hard!  BUT I awoke this morning to a spotless kitchen, a DRY kitchen floor and when I opened the dishwasher there were no pools of water sitting on any of the top rack of CLEAN dishes.  Interesting!

This is just one small, insignificant example of how change and I don’t always mix well.  Now…I can choose to have a good attitude which most of the time I do even if I don’t really like it at first.  My kids?  Maxwell didn’t know any of what happened last night because he was in bed and it was after noon before he stopped short in his tracks while running by and said Hey!  Did we get a new dishwasher?  YAY!  Can I look inside?  I simply laughed out loud.  Couldn’t I have been so excited?  Some people wait months, years even to get things replaced…my husabnd did it right away so I wouldn’t be have to be inconvenienced for even a single day not even once did I have to wash a single dish by hand!  He’s pretty amazing.  Why he puts up with me?  NO IDEA!

This past fall at church we were studying in the book of Matthew the birth of Jesus as well as who Jesus is in the book of Ephesians.  The comment was made that “God changed” for the first time in history when God the Son became flesh.  That got my attention right quick.  I mean we always knew that God became flesh, Emmanuel, God with us but to think that God changed.   I have sung that Amy Grant song since I was like, what, 3?…age to age you’re still the same.  God…the Father of heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.  My OCD nerve was hit and I was physically, mentally and spiritually uncomfortable for about 4 seconds with that.  I mean a new dishwasher makes me ornery…when you’re talking about GOD my tail feathers naturally get a little ruffled instantly…I can’t help it.  Then I realized, yeah, God did change.  I had just never thought about it that way before.  Jesus left the splendor of Heaven to become one of us…human…FOREVER…not to mention the fact that He died to take our place.  The word sacrifice doesn’t even begin to define what He’s done for us. 

I can honestly say even though I didn’t really like the idea at first (or how or when it was installed) my new dishwasher…even though I don’t need it…is pretty fabulous and so is my wonderful husband for giving it to me.  Praise be to God for the best gift He’s ever given…One that every single one of us needs!  Even though it made me a little uncomfortable at first, one of my favorite things about Christmas is that God changed forever when He became flesh and was born that very first Christmas.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.

Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understoodit.

There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—children born not of natural descent,nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.