Is the Christmas season the best month of the year or just the most stressful? Yes! This humorous video overwhelms us with all the craziness that crowds our schedules at Christmas and then adds a tongue-in-cheek reminder that “Jesus is the reason for the season” and after yesterday’s post I couldn’t help but piggy-back this on. Enjoy!
Ah, the sounds of Christmas…carols playing softly, a crackling fire and WAIT! Not in my house. Here is what Christmas sound like in our house (it’s more fun if you sing it…)
Hark how the bells, phones, and the texts, ring through the house, giving no rest. MOM WHERE IS THIS? MOM I NEED THAT! He’s touching me. She started it! Merry merry merry merry Christmas! Merry merry merry merry Christmas!
I am so bored. Can I go here? Please take me there. I need a dozen cookies. I need a dozen more please! She’s got my stuff! He started it! Merry merry merry merry Christmas! Merry merry merry merry Christmas!
It’s picture time. Can’t you sit still? Just look right here. You have a Christmas concert? You have to be at practice? Get in the car! We need more gas. Merry merry merry merry Christmas! Merry merry merry merry Christmas!
A picture of Christmas for so many of us, right? I wrote this last year for our Christmas cards, a picture of the days leading up to our Christmas, written in jest but based in reality. And then more recently I read this, “When it’s so easy to be overbooked, overstretched, and about to snap, STOP! Otherwise you will bulldoze right past some of life’s most precious moments.”
More than ever, this year I have a desire to do more than just have Christmas. I want to experience Christmas. Here is my advent challenge. I want to open my heart up to be present in the season today, not bulldoze through it in anticipation of tomorrow, or next week. I don’t want to bull rush my way to Christmas day. I want to make this very moment count. I want to allow my soul to awaken to the thrills of the Lord’s presence as I move through this holiday season. I love Jacob’s words in Genesis, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” These words echo in my heart as a reminder to slow down and notice Emmanuel, God with us, this season.
Merry merry merry merry Christmas!
A question to ponder today as we are all “innkeepers”…do you have room?
Dearest God,
Please never let me
Crowd my life
Full to the brim.
So like the keeper of Bethlehem’s Inn,
I find I have no room for Him.
Instead, let my heart’s door
Be ever open,
Ready to welcome
The newborn King.
Let me offer the best I have
To Him
Who gives me everything.
–author unknown
Advent…and so it begins. (Actually is began two days ago.) The countdown that marches us closer and closer to Christmas. I think of calendars with tiny little doors that open to reveal a piece of chocolate (eaten before breakfast, of course) for every day between now and Christmas. My kids used to get excited if they happened to miss a day for some reason and got to have two pieces of chocolate. I can remember having my own advent calendar years ago and the excitement and anticipation that opening every little door brought. One day closer…
Do you still have that excitement and anticipation or are the days flying by in a blur of to-do lists and to-buy lists? Advent is to Christmas what Lent is to Easter. A time of preparation for the coming celebration. John Piper says, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!” In other words, “In every heart prepare him room…by cleaning the house.”
Take some time to be still today, and in the coming days, to prepare your heart, or as John Piper said, clean the house. Marvel with me in wonder at the miracle of the season. Allow yourself time to take a deep breath and soak in the meaning of the season.
Jesus said, “I have come as a light to shine in this dark world, so that all who put their trust in me will no longer remain in the dark.” (John 12:46) He came to light up our world, to rescue us, to pull us out of the darkness forevermore. The very first gift of Christmas, given to you, to me, was love and salvation, peace and joy, given in the tiny form of a baby, wrapped, not in shiny paper and sparkly bow, but in rags.
I look forward to going on an advent journey together. For tonight, lets kick off the journey with a piece of chocolate and recapture the innocent anticipation of the coming celebration.
Run and Be Still 