(Self portrait 2009)
It is December 4 as I sit looking around our home. No sign of Christmas is to be found yet. No decorations grace the mantle. No tree with twinkling lights. I have yet to pull out the boxes of decorations filled with Santas and ornaments and other holiday items.
Why I’m not rushing to bring in the Christmas season I don’t quite know. Well maybe I do. Maybe it’s the busy-ness that the season seems to bring with it that I’d rather not rush.
I guess you can say my hope for this Christmas is simplicity.
Maybe it’s cliché. I hear many friends saying they want to simplify and no doubt simplicity is a buzz word among the online world.
I have said for many years I wanted things to slow down during the Christmas season. The stress of the parties and gift buying and everything that goes along with the holidays steal my focus. This year the need to simplify the craziness of the season has felt necessary though.
So my hope for this Christmas is simplicity. To find joy in the simple. The spark in my son’s eyes at the Christmas lights around town. The music that reaches my soul with the season’s meanings. To remember the simplicity of how God chose to reveal his grace to us: with a babe in a manger.
What is your hope for Christmas?
