Getting content with Christmas.
Here we are fresh off Thanksgiving and into the Advent season.
In a matter of just a few days, we’ve gone from hearts filled with gratitude and grace while our lips tasted turkey to finishing off leftovers as we’re inundated by Black Friday and Cyber Monday messages. The slow pace of gratitude gets quickly outpaced by the chaos of Christmas as the thankfulness gets sucked out of our hearts and replaced with the stress of all the things we still need to buy.
It can be the season of requests and pressures. Requests from kids and pressures to please our families. Endless party requests and pressures to keep up with other moms.
We’ll get caught up in making Christmas perfect. Making the tree perfect, snagging the perfect gifts, making the perfect food, dressing our kids the perfect way for the perfect picture.
We’ll struggle to find the margin in these moments. And as we move fast to make Christmas happen, slowly the wonder of what we truly have in Christ gets overshadowed.
But the only way to true contentment this Christmas is to be able to see the real gifts and grace in our lives. It’s true, these are gifts you cannot buy. You can’t work hard for them. But in the next 25 days, if we don’t slow down long enough, we might just miss them.
The small voice saying, “thank you, mama” as you hand a snack to little hands in your kitchen. That’s a gift.
Unhurried moments of playing on the floor. That’s a gift.
Children who FaceTime from far away. That’s a gift.
Your husband laughing in the other room while he wrestles with the kids. That’s a gift.
Sitting in your garage while your favorite worship song finishes. That’s a gift.
A neighborhood walk in the crisp breeze while the sun sets. That’s a gift.
Our lives are already drenched in gifts. Sure, we’ll need to buy a couple for under the tree. But man would it be unfortunate to move so fast this season that we miss the gifts that already surround us.
And it’s pure grace to see how much we already have.
Grace to resist what we do not need.
Grace to slow down and reflect on the goodness in our lives.
Grace to be content with Christmas.
I hope you can cultivate enough gratitude that overshadows the cheapening of sacredness of this season. Enjoy all the gifts you cannot buy or earn. And when your heart fills with joy, may you whisper from you lips, “Thank you, Jesus
love,
vanessa