Great is his
faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:23 NLT
Every Christmas there is this battle that rages inside
of me, as there may be with many of you other mothers. I always wish to make Christmas this magical
experience for my family. I dream of
Christmas carols playing in the background, cookies baking, candles glowing and
our whole family decorating the Christmas tree together. I have never myself experienced such a
magical experience so I don’t know why I think I have to create this for my
family every year. In reality it never
happens! The cookies are burning, the TV
is blaring instead of Christmas carols and everyone is usually fighting about
what ornaments go where. Not the
perfection I have imagined many times.
A couple of weeks
ago we got the Christmas decorations out of the attic and put up our Christmas
tree and other decorations around the house. As I unpacked the boxes of
decorations and ornaments I realized that I only had a few pieces left of the
ceramic nativity set my parents had given me years ago. They were very big pieces requiring a special
place to set up the nativity scene. Over the years packing and unpacking,
several of the pieces had gotten broken and I finally decided to throw them
away. I kept any good pieces thinking I can
at least have a Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus and a wise man or shepherd. I do have a few pieces left but not
much.
We got the
Christmas tree up and decorated and, like every year, the stinking thing is
leaning! For the life of me, I cannot
get my tree to stand up straight in the stand.
I tried to fix it but still it leans.
I decided that it is fine as long as it doesn’t fall over!
Thinking about my
crooked Christmas tree I actually got tickled because no other Christmas tree
would really fit me better! My crooked
Christmas tree fits into my crooked life.
Although I believe we should always strive to do our best, I believe
that perfection is highly overrated and that it is the imperfections in life
that provide character. I saw a
Harlequin Great Dane one time that was a beautiful dog with one blue eye and
one gray. Imperfection, but absolutely gorgeous, and God almighty, who is
perfect, made him that way.
I am so thankful
this Christmas for the ultimate gift that God gave us in Jesus. He is
the ultimate gift, bearing
gifts. That little baby, wrapped in
swaddling clothes in a manger brought hope, love, peace, forgiveness, kindness
and my favorite – MERCY.
This year when I
look at my crooked Christmas tree and my broken and pieced together Nativity
set I will not flinch, thinking of how imperfect Christmas is turning out to
be. I will smile at the reflection of my
own personal imperfection in my poor leaning Christmas tree and I will be
reminded of the gift of mercy the Savior gives.
The Bible promises that His mercies are new every morning. I am thankful for that because every day I
need to start over with a clean slate.
Thank goodness that we can confess our sins and He will forgive and
forget. We can start over every
day. That’s 365 times a year! Mercy!
What a gift.
This year more than
ever I am embracing the fact that we are not perfect and a perfect Christmas
really happens in your heart. It is a
personal affair, more than a family affair.
You can’t wait for the cookies to be perfect or the children to love one
another. There will always be something
that can steal the joy and true meaning of Christmas from you and the true
meaning of Christmas is different for everyone.
One thing does remain the same for all.
Jesus came as the ultimate gift and He bears gifts. Pick your favorite one and embrace it this
season.
Scripture to Claim:
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:16
(Submitted By Lara Cook)
