I love Christmas. The lights, the decorations, the many opportunities to gather together in celebration. The gifts, the generosity, the thoughtfulness that goes into all the preparations. Sure, it isn’t without its share of stress and strain, but – like most things in life – where we choose to put our focus makes the experience either heavier or more joyful.
I feel blessed this year for the gift being able to focus on the grand purpose of it all. Usually, I have to remind myself – a lot – during this season to focus on what matters and why I’m doing it. Not because I don’t remember, but because my focus gets easily tangled up in all the details. Normally the stress is thick and the demands are too many to juggle seamlessly. Somewhere, something cracks and I have to bring myself back to the grounding truth that all of this is for Jesus. I’m not sure it’s supposed to be this way, but it has been.
This year I have an unusual amount of “extras” to work around and yet, somehow, focusing on the reason for the season has been easier for me. Less of a task and more of an underlining awareness that permeates all the details. I don’t have to go looking for it, because I feel like it’s been peeking out at me from every box, every pile, and every list. I am counting it as the grace of God, and rejoicing in the everyday moments that are calling my heart to pause and worship.
Grace is beautiful because it does what we can’t do for ourselves. It takes what once was heavy and burdensome and dependent upon us, and turns it into a reality that lives and moves and breathes all on its own. It is the promise of God coming alive when we are busy trying to work around the gaps we see. It is the Son of God sent to save us from our sins, ourselves, and the enemy while we are fixed on merely surviving life as it’s become. It is the breath of God reaching down into our harrowing circumstances, whispering “I’ve got you” when it seems like everything is spinning out of control, carrying us right along with it.
This Christmas is unlike most I’ve experienced. If I had had the option to change it before it all started looking like a tilt-a-whirl, I probably would have. But now that I’m in the middle of the messy, fragile thick of it, and I’ve caught a glimpse of the sweetness of God’s grace shining through it, my heart is rejoicing for what I’ve gained. And I don’t think I would want to change a thing.
Dear Woman of Breakthrough, all of this is for Him. For the God Who loved the whole world – who loved us – so much that He gave the best He had. He wrapped His Beloved Son in weak, dependent flesh, and gave Him to weak, inconsistent man, so that we would be able to set our eyes on what matters more than anything else:
the reality that God is always with us.
Always. When it’s beautiful and when it’s hard. When it’s messy and when it’s sparkling and awe-inspiring. When there’s too little and when there’s too much. We have the opportunity every day – and in all the moments of the days surrounding this season – to pause and remember that all of it is meant to point our hearts toward Him in worship. To give us reason to breathe deeply and reflect on the reality that is so much greater than the details we tend to get stuck on. We are not alone.
Every morning, as I walk into my living room and see the lights and the evergreen swag, the presents and the shimmering ribbons, I feel hope flood my soul all over again. Not because it’s been inspired by the decorations, but because it outshines them. When it’s time to put the decorations away, and go back to life as usual, my hope will still be shining – freshly re-ignited by the light that has shone through my darkness and the despair of life as it’s been this season.
We truly have so very much to be thankful for. We are feasting because we have a Savior. We have a friend in God. We have been forgiven! We are free to live and to worship Him. We have tasted His goodness, and there is still so much more to come. We have been seen by the One Who sees and knows it all. We are known by the One that all of this is for. How beautiful that He would build into our lives the occasion to remember and celebrate.
How I pray you will take the time to pause and reflect on this reality, Dear One. How I hope that you will meditate upon the grace of God and the glory He has shown us in giving us Christ. And how I pray that Jesus will become to you this Christmas all that God ever meant for Him to be. Not just a centerpiece on the table. Not just a tradition we celebrate. Not merely a memorial we attribute the whole shebang to. Not just a generic gift, given to everyone. But the very person for which all of this is about. The I Am that you need right now.
May purpose sing to you from every twinkling light and glimmering package. And may you humbly, freshly, gladly rejoice in all you have received because God’s love has been poured out for you. May His grace appear to you, reminding you that it doesn’t depend on you, but that He took up and took on the responsibility of keeping your heart anchored in the truth of His love for you. So let your heart soak in that truth, and settle back into the grand unfolding of His marvelous ways as you focus on letting every detail lead you right back to Him. You will find rest and refreshment for your soul as you do!
{Photo images courtesy of http://www.pixabay.com}
She Dances Over Graves 