When my children were young, there was a beautifully done experiential retelling of Jesus’ birth story in a town nearby every Christmas. Crowds of families would walk the bumpy dirt paths, smell the barn animals, see the sandal-clad feet and rope-tied waists of the “locals”, and rest on hay as a sweet little baby nestled comfortably in the arms of a cloth-draped girl illuminated by the angel glowing in the rafters. The miracle story brought to life.
I took my children once and remember two things in addition to the mainly lovely experience: feeling like I might need leashes, and the treat servers at the end frantically restocking platters to make sure each little hand could seize the promised two cookies:)
When I expressed at work how nice the event was, a colleague shared how her family had actively participated in the production for years, and yet they arrived to the end of the season each year exhausted feeling like they had sort-of missed Christmas. I remember thinking, “Wow, the story was right there in front of them. They were even in the story. Yet in trying to help others get it, they missed it.”…and hasn’t this happened to all of us?
Trying to help others catch the spirit of Christmas, we miss it ourselves.
Do you get to the end of Christmas and feel like you just chased the wind? Even worse, do you tell yourself it’s not going to be like that next time, but at the end of the next Christmas season you realize it was?
Another year of “What just happened?”
My key verse today (and maybe a new life verse) is Ecclesiastes 4: 6, “Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind,” and I’m guessing the author, King Solomon, really got this. Our culture doesn’t seem to be about one handful. It’s about more. We grasp, strive and even compete, leaving a dryness and depletion that will not allow the garden in our souls to flourish. Striving but not thriving means no peace.
And a lack of peace for the season that ushers in the Prince of Peace can’t be a good thing.
So here is a great question that I’m asking myself, and I invite you to ask yourself as well:
What do I need to do (or not do) right now, and tomorrow and the next day to arrive to the end of the Christmas season feeling like my soul is nourished from taking in the reality of the miracle of Jesus’ birth and the comfort that Emmanuel (God with us) brings to our lives?
If I am thinking of this in terms of handfuls, what might I need to let go of to have one tranquil handful rather than two that are toiling after the wind? We could all add different things to this list: fewer lights, simpler gifts, letting go of grudges, less activity away from home…
If our own souls are nourished and peaceful, how much more would those around us be? And how much more could we be used to draw others to Jesus, the true light of this beautiful season:)
