…for family gatherings and full bellies.
…for reflecting back on the past year and looking forward to the year to come.
…for getting super excited about Christmas and equally panicked that it will come and go and you’ll miss something.
Oh, no?
That’s just me?
I adore Christmastime. The tree, the carols, the cookies, the church services, the poinsettias, the eggnog, the stockings, the parties, the gift wrapping…it all woos me with the promise of a little heaven on earth.
Our fallen world is filled with so much pain, and I think Christmas is a magical time that we believe holds the promise of good.
Shoppers being nice to each other at the mall. People buying a latte for the guy behind them at Starbucks. Dysfunctional families eating, drinking and being merry together in moments of rare harmony.
I believe we were created for perfection and that we’re looking for little bits of it all the time.
I believe that God crafted all of creation, a gorgeous symphony of sights, sounds, colors and wonder, and that when He was done, He wanted to share it with someone.
Like turning the house into a magical Christmas wonderland of garlands, snowman figurines and twinkle lights and waiting with bated breath for your children to wake up and see it all.
The wonderland is so much sweeter when you share it with the people you hold most dear.
That’s how I think it was with God when He made everything and then made us.
Tiny veins built into delicate green leaves adorning grand oak trees. I bet He thought, “Wait until they discover these! I bet they will love them. And wow they’re gonna love it in October when all these little veined treasures turn a hundred shades of red, yellow and orange!”
So He made us.
In His own image.
To enjoy every little bit of it.
And all was well. Perfect actually.
The human heart was created for perfection.
Our hearts do not know what to do with all of the pain we face.
Dysfunctional relationships, death, infertility, deceit, loss, sickness, cruelty, hatred, crime.
They overwhelm our precious perfection-craving hearts.
So we numb them.
Or we try to.
Oh, boy do we try.
Shopping. Drinking. Rule following. Eating. Drugs. Sex. Control. Exercise. Starvation. Smoking. Religion. Routines. Recreation. Social media. Reading. Cleaning. Serving.
No matter how “good” or “evil” any of the things in that list might be, if they draw our aching hearts away from the only One who can comfort us, they are harmful.
The Sacred Romance, calls them “less wild lovers”.
God longs to be the lover of our souls and He is, by His very nature, good.
But He’s wild.
We don’t understand Him.
His ways are not our ways.
So often He doesn’t seem to “make sense” to us, so we turn to “less wild lovers” that appear to be the thing that will satisfy us NOW.
And that’s all we want.
The pain to subside. The ache to die down.
We want a fast-food solution to the deepest ache of our souls.
If you’re like me this time of year, you add a weapon to your arsenal…
The promise of Christmas cheer.
You think that maybe, just maybe, if the house is decorated just so, and you make the right assortment of pretty cookies, and go to parties with your favorite people, and choose the perfect gifts for each of your kids, and go sledding, and drink hot chocolate, and listen to enough carols by the glow of the tree, and consume enough eggnog in cute glasses dusted with nutmeg, and savor each moment enough, that you will somehow feel better.
But you won’t.
There may be some wonderful moments when all the holiday stars align and the food tastes amazing and everyone is getting along. You may squint your eyes together to take a mental picture so that you can remember the moment for years to come.
Oh, no?
That’s just me? :)
But really, when it’s all said and done, there is no amount of holiday cheer that can satisfy us. Rescue us from our sin. Mend our broken hearts.
Only HIM.
The true promise of the Christmas season.
Jesus.
I sat down to type up a Christmas Bucket List here and look what I ended up with? An important reminder for myself!
I love when that happens in this space. When God steers my fingers toward typing something He wants to say to me.
And today it was a reminder not to get caught up in all the hype.
To enjoy the next few weeks, but not look to all of the fun holiday stuff to fill a place that it simply cannot.
I want to quiet my heart.
I want to meditate on scripture so that it’s written on my heart and it comes to mind each and every time I start to feel frantic.
I want to lean into the wild One who can tame my ferocious longings.
I’m not quite sure how I stumbled into this particular post, but I’m so glad I did! Rebecca, you so beautifully articulated the (often unrecognized) cry of our hearts, the uncomfortable struggle against instant gratification, and a tension that is so very real in our daily lives…and so evident at this time of year. Thank you for sharing the gift of yourself! :) Blessings to you and yours this precious Christmas season.
Thanks so much for the sweet comment, Joy! Means the world coming from someone I admire so much :)
All I can say is that I LOVE this post…
Thanks Marie, your compliments always me a lot to me :)
Hi Rebecca….I enjoyed your blog very much. When you listed all the wonderful things that we can enjoy at Christmas, I can certainly relate. But then, you conveyed that all those things will not satisfy. This is God’s awesome truth! Only He can meet our needs. Isn’t it great that fulfillment in Him is free and available moment by moment? It is so simple. Thank you for sharing your heart and thoughts. Have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave such a sweet comment! I hope you also have a very merry and blessed Christmas!
What could be a more perfect time of year to celebrate the birth of Christ than the winter solstice, as we move from the darkest days toward ever-brightening ones.
http://www.hcna.us/columns/history-of-christmas.htm
I love Christmas…I’ve been thinking about that some this year as I struggle to settle into this season as our own little family. We’ve been married for 5 years but this is only the second time we won’t see my family at all, and that’s still hard for me. I love doing Advent with our kids and I’m figuring out what it means to decorate our house (this is our first Christmas in it) and I would say that I’m pretty stuck on focusing on Christ’s birth rather than the consumerism of it all. But this:
But really, when it’s all said and done, there is no amount of holiday cheer that can satisfy us. Rescue us from our sin. Mend our broken hearts.
Only HIM.
The true promise of the Christmas season.
Jesus.
That’s what I needed to hear. I want so badly to recreate the magic of Christmas from my youth and to continue traditions we had but honestly it’s from a superficial place. HE is enough. The end.
Thanks Rebecca=)
Thank you so much for the heartfelt comment. This is a season full of so much good, but I know the enemy stands at the ready trying to pervert all of the good into something that takes us away from our maker. I’ve loved being blog friends since Influence and I’m always excited to see your posts pop up in my reader :)
I love your honesty, Rebecca. Your authenticity. You are so real, and we all benefit from you reminding us to be the same. I am so glad to have read your words on this first day of December. My holiday season will be better for having done so! Thank you for sharing!
As I am about to retire for the evening, feeling a bit anxious about my life, I read your soothing words and choose to trust the lover of my soul with my life… Thank you sweetie for sharing your gift with us!
I love and appreciate you so much…
Mom
I am not sure what I expected this post to be, but what it is amazed me! You captured so many powerful word images I needed to hear (see?), and I love that. I especially love thinking that God creates so many small, wonderful things simply for us to discover and enjoy :) Thank you for sharing from your heart and talking about the meaning behind this meaningful holiday. Love you beautiful!
Oh Rebecca….wonderful! Love you and your words!
Oh, my dear, sweet friend! You have wisdom beyond your years. This brought tears to my eyes and a revival in my heart. The timeliness of your words on this day that we decked our halls was no doubt in God’s perfect timing. You have made me come alive with anticipation of an all-out adventure with my wild God! It’s so easy to forget sometimes that He is daily romancing us. I want the wind to blow hard on my face, my hair straight back, as He takes me to places I’ve never been in Him. Thank you, Rebecca! I am so blessed to have you in my life. Truly.