Has the Busyness of Christmas Got You, Too?
Do you ever feel like the days leading up to Christmas are buzzing by at such a pace you can’t seem to keep your focus? On the Person this Christmas celebration is to be about in the first place? In your rush, you find you have somehow missed the “reason for the season”?
That was me 25 years ago when I must have thought I could be all things to all people. That was before I learned the art of graciously saying, “No” to certain invitations and requests and limiting the “Yes.” Literally, that year the twinkling lights and Christmas music were no more than a blur in my aching head and exhausted body. Thankfully God had a lesson for me that year in a place I was least expecting to find one. It’s a lesson I need to be reminded of year after year. So I’d like to share it with you now.
I pray this little story blesses you as you seek to experience the real reason for the season. Receive it as my Christmas gift to you!
I Wish I Was More Like Them
Last Sunday my family attended a Christmas program that began by featuring our two year old son, Brady, and several of his little classmates. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect since Brady has Down syndrome and his class consists of children with various degrees of mental retardation. What sort of program could there be when most of these precious tots were non-verbal?
When the curtains opened and the music to the “Little Drummer Boy” played out - so did Brady. He clapped and “sang” and hollered in delight as one of his classmates sat at the front of the stage banging on a drum. The auditorium was full of parents, grandparents and friends who were filled with a flood of emotions.
As the program progressed to the adult clients singing and reciting their lines, I just let my tears fall freely. My first thoughts were of sadness for all the imperfections that were on that stage, for all the could have beens had it not been for their disabilities. I wondered for a moment what the purpose of this annual Christmas program was - for the quality of music was far from perfect.
Then a handsome young man dressed in a tuxedo and top hat came forward and sang, “Surely the Presence of the Lord is in this Place.” This young man also had Down syndrome and although some of his notes were flat, God spoke to me there.
In my own mad rush for the Christmas holidays of service projects, buying of gifts, giving of parties, I had become so overloaded and stressed there was nothing left of me to give my family. I had been so exhausted on Sunday morning from all my busyness that my mind slept through the worship service (or wandered off to all the things still left to be done).
Oh to be more simple minded. To be less concerned of all life’s busyness and more thrilled with the opportunity to sing out praises to our great God. To be so uninhibited that we have no preoccupation for what others think about our performance except for the One who created us.
God says we are all created in His image, that we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” In Christ, we are perfect in God’s sight. These people before me, filled with their afflictions, were doing exactly what God had created them to do - to enjoy life, to love one another, and to glorify their Creator. They were doing just that!
If only we could be more like them.