Dear Stressed-out Christmas mama,
Oh precious maker of Christmas magic; you who thoughtfully chose gifts, decorate cookies, hang garland, applaud at Christmas pageants, hang out at the grocery store more than your own kitchen, and fearfully watch your checking balance dwindle; I promise you that what you’ve done is enough.
It is enough.
You can breathe.
Relax.
Sit down.
And know that it is enough.
In this home stretch—this Christmas Eve eve—our tendencies as makers of Christmas magic is to do just a little more. Buy just a little more. Make just a little more. Plan just a little more. Wrap just a little more. Run hard at the very end to ensure our people have a wonder-filled Christmas morning. And yet more often than not our sprint toward the finish line adds nothing but stress, fatigue and resentment.
And so today let’s make a pact to take Christmas Eve back! To allow truth to seep into our souls—the truth that there has only been, and will only be, one perfect Christmas and one perfect Christmas gift. And so the pressure is off!! We can’t add to perfect. And we can’t outdo the perfect Christmas. So let’s not even try.
In fact, think about that first and only perfect Christmas for just a minute:
There was no beautifully decorated house. No garland. No twinkling lights. No stockings hung from the mantle. In fact, there was no house! Only a barn. And no Yankee Candle from which wafted the scent of evergreen Christmas meadow. Nope, the only scent wafting was ode de cow manure!
There were no matching pajamas. Only strips of cloth wrapped around a wiggling baby.
There was no feast to be found. No cookies to be iced, and no cider to be warmed. Only two parents watching their new son in awe and wonder.
There was no Pinterest worthy table set to welcome dinner guests. Yet, guests did come and they were in fact welcomed. Guests who most likely smelled no better than the animals napping in the barn.
No, nothing about that first Christmas would have ended up in a magazine spread.
And yet it was in fact perfect. Absolutely gloriously perfect.
And so to my fellow makers of Christmas magic, this year let’s let ourselves off the hook!
We can give gifts without feeling the pressure of giving the perfect gift! We can entertain guests knowing that at least we aren’t moving a cow over to make room for our aunt! We can say “maybe next year” to those things we didn’t get done this time around.
So let’s agree that:
Whatever gets done is what will be done, and that is enough.
Whatever gets cooked will be what is cooked, and that is enough.
Whatever gets decorated is what will be decorated, and that is enough.
For the truth is—the glorious, unchanging, light-shining truth—it is enough because He is enough.
Rest.
Breathe.
And ponder the Who of Christmas. For as you ponder the Who of Christmas you might just find that the what doesn’t matter quite as much.
Much love and Merry Christmas,
Jen
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14
