Christmas time is here…happiness and cheer. Or maybe not. Sometimes it’s just another season. Just another month. Just another day. Nothing special. I think sometimes our expectations of what we think the Holidays SHOULD be like set us up for disappointment. Maybe we watched too many Hallmark Christmas movies, too many cheesy sitcoms where all the problems are all solved in 30 minutes and everyone learns a happy lesson and they all sing “Peace on Earth” at the end. Real life tends to be a bit messier. A bit more real. A lot more disappointing.
In the movies, the relatives always make it home just in time to celebrate the big day; in real life…the relatives are in a nursing home, deployed in a war zone, or even in jail. There’s no heart-warming home-coming….just cold loneliness. In the movies, there’s always heaps of presents under the tree and the kids always get EXACTLY what they wished for! In real life, sometimes the money runs out because the bills take priority over any luxuries and the parents work their hardest, but just can’t swing the cost of newest and the best. Spouses leave. Companies lay-off. Mortgages are due. Cancer afflicts. Drugs and alcohol steals personalities. Teens get pregnant. Cars get wrecked. Beloved pets die. These things keep happening with no respect to the date on the calendar.
Sometimes…..sometimes even those of us with new presents, a house full of relatives, shiny new cars, more than enough to eat, and seemingly “normal” middle class lives feel the sting of December’s disappointment. We can go through the motions…putting up the tree, or putting up several trees, decking the halls, singing the carols, baking the cookies, wrapping the presents, hanging the wreath, mailing the Christmas cards…and we’re still left with no Peach on Earth in the middle of our Silent Nights. Outwardly, we’re doing all the right things: going to all the right parties, churches, seeing all the right plays, watching all the right Christmas specials and baking all the special foods…but inwardly, we’re as cold and sad as the ripped and crumpled wrapping paper in the trash the day after Christmas.
What are we missing? What elusive experience are we chasing? What can we do to make it so perfect in our homes that Normal Rockwell would clamor for a chance to paint our portraits around our Christmas dinner table?
Why is it that even surrounded by blessings, by loving families, by comfort and plenty, and good health…..why is it that even then, we’re not really, truly happy or peaceful feeling down deep inside ourselves? What would it take to defrost the ice on our hearts? What would have to happen to shake our very souls and give us an actual feeling of peaceful rest? The perfect gift? The perfect slice of cheesecake? Reconciled family members? Well behaved children? Winning the lottery? Becoming the next American Idol? Writing a best selling book? Making the Olympic Gymnastic team? What on earth would it take to guarantee happiness? Is there any THING that can make and fulfill that impossible promise? If it’s not a thing….what about a person?? Who would it take to thrill your heart?? Your soul-mate? Your best friend? Your estranged father? Your child? Your puppy? A movie star? A long-lost lover?
Or is it something that has to come from within? A stronger will? More faith? More motivation? Stronger resolve? Creativity? Intelligence?
Or would any of these make any difference at all? Are we as humans programmed with a longing for something more than this world can offer? I tend to think so. I believe that we will never been 100% completely satisfied and peaceful while on this earth. I believe that we were created with eternity set in our hearts and we will spend this lifetime striving to find the peace and rest that we will reach only when this lifetime is over. Perhaps this life is for trouble and strife, working and longing….and eternity is for peace, worship and rest.
Christmas, when focused on eternity….reminds us that we were created for so much more than this imperfect life. We’re reminded that God would take on flesh and blood and become human as one of us to draw us to Him. It’s mind-boggling to me that the baby born in a stable so long ago is the God of all creation and that He was born to die….born to die in MY place….born to die so that I could live. When I focus on this true meaning of Christmas, I find my heart is a bit more peaceful…my mood less pensive and more thankful….I find that I am no longer saddened by my less than perfect circumstances because I’m in awe of the sacrifice of an immortal deity becoming so human…solely for my sake. Have I ever known such perfect love or felt such perfect peace as this? Nothing can compare. The weight of the glory of that moment blankets my heart in warmth and stills my wandering mind.
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