by Charlton Hiott, senior associate pastor of pastoral ministries

"Really, Dad!"

"What?" I asked as I looked up, a bit startled to see my 17-year-old daughter
standing in front of me, hands on her hips, with a look that I’ve seen on her mother's face before. "Look at you!" she exclaimed. "How many times have you gotten on to me about listening to my iPod while I'm on the computer, and look at you!"

True story. I was staring at my laptop, the TV remote in one hand and my Blackberry in the other (and yes, the TV was on). Busted. I was not even aware my daughter had walked into the room.

Got technology? Technology got you? The technological advances during the last 20 years have been great and all, but there are downsides. Maybe the most subtle and insidious of all is the distraction that comes when the technological talismans have, in my case, divided and subdivided attention.

Distractions abound in this life: huge and miniscule, important and trivial, exciting and banal. A thousand different paths for every moment of every day lie before us offering seductive and amusing detours from our intended task or purpose. Christmas comes each year with a myriad of potential distractions. Don't misunderstand me, I love the Christmas season, but I know all too well that I can become so fixated on the things of Christmas that I become oblivious to its essential message.

Of those crowding into Bethlehem when God came to earth to be born in a manger, only a few shepherds and wise men came to see the miracle of the incarnation with their own eyes. Of course, Zacharias and Elizabeth understood somewhat, Joseph too, and Mary, who was working out in her own heart and mind these glorious and strange things of the last nine months (Matthew 2:19). But beyond this small group of common folk, everyone else was probably distracted, unaware. "Did you find us a place to stay?" "What is there to do in Bethlehem?" "I’m so bored." "Any good places to eat?"

What an interruption! You'd think at Christmas, more than any other time of the year, it would be easy to focus on Jesus, but times haven't changed much; the distractions are unrelenting. This Christmas, I encourage you to take a break from plucking your blackberries and take in the sights and scenes. As we do, let us fix our eyes on its author, Jesus. Then we will see the common bushes afire, the miracle of the incarnation, and the glory, majesty, and wonder that is Christmas.

Earth’s crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees, takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries,
and daub their natural faces unaware.

—Elizabeth Barrett Browning, "Aurora Leigh" Book VII