Keeping It Real

This is the time of year for buying things for the ones you love, baking cookies and seeing the excitement in your children's eyes. It can also be a stressful time of year, where we get so caught up in our "to do list" that we forget to sit back and enjoy it. It only comes once a year. This year, I have simplified everything. Usually, I spend days putting up Christmas decorations and hours upon hours finding that perfect gift. I bake and bake and then swear I'll never bake again! I spend the season in such a rush, trying to make everything just perfect. Come December 25th, I am exhausted, worn out and can barely muster up the energy to take down all the decorations I worked so hard in putting up, or eat the last of my goodies and clean up after the mess that was left behind from just one day.

This year, my attitude has been much different. This year I'm slowing down, doing a little at a time and not beating myself up for the things that inevitably won't get done. This year there is no snow village to grace my living room or angels and nativity to greet you as you walk in my front door. There is a Christmas tree with blinking colored lights and that is it. I'm not stressing over Foster breaking something that is precious or already thinking about how many hours its going to take me to climb back up into the attic to put the village pieces away. I have been baking, but a little at a time, I'm dragging out the yummy smells of my homemade goodies! I have realized that Christmas isn't about something to do or places to go. It's not about spending an equal amount of money on your children or worrying that your brother-in-law might not like the couples gift you got for him and his wife. It's not about addressing Christmas cards or making it to the next big sale.

Christmas is a celebration, its meant to be a joyful time. God in the flesh coming to earth, to save our weary, blackened souls. It is about the One true gift which is more important than any of that. As I look at Will, who is only 6 months old, I can't help but wonder, what was Jesus like as a baby? Did He have dimples or a bald head? Did He keep his parents up at night with an ear ache? Did he smile when Joseph walked in the room from a long day at work? Did he like to suck on his tiny toes and clap his hands? He was but just a tiny baby, like my own little man.

Randol and I watched The Nativity Story on TV the other night. I was reminded that Mary was only a young girl and that an angel came to her and asked her to do the unexplainable, the unfathomable. It got me thinking about how her parents and their small, tight, knit community responded to such news. If you saw a girl who was engaged and all of a sudden she was pregnant saying it was God's child, what would you think? I'll be honest, I'd be like, "Yeah right! We aren't stupid!" No matter how nice a girl she was, it would be hard to believe. Mary could have been stoned to death for such a thing, but she told the angel, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said." (Luke 1:38).

WOW! I think I might have been tempted to say, "Thanks, but no thanks! Go find someone else!" Then I realized, I have said that to God before. Have you ever had a "Mary Moment"? A time you can think of in your life where God called on you to do something that was out of this world? An idea so crazy, you start to wonder if maybe you made it up? Something that goes against the grain of the world, but matters so much to the Kingdom of Heaven. It may be holding someone accountable for their actions, correcting a close friend or member of your church. Sometimes it could be something small like starting a blog or taking a neighbor to church with you. To the world it looks like no big deal, but to you, its putting yourself on the line and taking a risk (and God knows it) and He asks you to take the adventure with Him and let Him be your guide.

In those moments we are given a choice, will we be like Mary and say, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said," or will we choose to say no and miss out on so many of God's blessings?

This holiday season I need to,(as my friend Victoria says),"Keep the main thing, the main thing". That main thing is Jesus and my constant willingness to follow Him, no matter where He leads me, even when I do not understand or want to go, I am still called to follow.

How many things I might have missed out on if I was still trying to live up to a "perfect Christmas" (because there is no such thing!). Snuggling with my son in the wee hours of the morning, watching the colored lights dance along the floor; making cookies with Randol and letting her lick the spoon, singing Christmas songs and dancing around the house with my children in our pj's. Memories that would be lost if I was still running around trying to do everything.

As you rush from here to there over the next two weeks, remember to stop and thank Him for His gift. It's not about what you wish you had or what you need to go do, its about the blessings He's already given you and what He did for you on that "O Holy Night". There is so much to celebrate!