De-Cluttering Christmas

Thanksgiving came early this year, and I was sad to celebrate it with a chest cold.  Usually the day after Thanksgiving sees me pulling out all the decorations and decking the halls with crazy enthusiasm.  The chest cold prevented that, keeping me in my pajamas for the bulk of the long weekend.  This also resulted in a less than cleanly house for the beginning of the week.  Okay, it's pretty messy here right now.

Looking around myself this afternoon while the boys were taking rest time in their rooms, I realized I should clean the house.  But I REALLY wanted to decorate for Christmas a bit.  I took about fifteen minutes to pack up the Thanksgiving decorations.  There just aren't that many of them.  Then I headed to the basement to decide what I could possibly add to the mess of my house that would make it feel a bit like Advent without adding clutter.

And I found it.  Our nativity scene.  Easy.  Clear off the dining room table.  Bang.  Instant Christmas. But for whatever reason, I found myself pulling the figures out before I had cleaned up the mess.  I placed them in the center of the table with all my junk just lying there, my coffee cup, my car keys, my "To Do" lists, my bags of ministry junk, and the pile of partially opened mail.  And it was perfect, so perfect I had to take a picture.

There is Christ in the center.  And there is all my garbage behind him.  Seriously, people.  It's a snapshot of my life!  I'm just never going to be cleaned up enough to come to Jesus on my own merit.  So I will approach Him just the way I am, broken and with baggage, trusting in His work on the Cross to save me, clean me and keep me.

Not only that, it seems like Christmas comes with clutter, the decorating, the baking, the shopping, the visiting, the ministry events.  Oh, yes I did.  I just clumped ministry with shopping.  Why?  Because sometimes I put it on my to do list and it is less an act of worship and more a box to check off.  That is no good.  How do I, how do we, move from checking the box to worshipping the Newborn King?

I think a good place to start is by setting Christ in the center, regardless of the junk that fills the rest of our lives.  I love early morning quiet time, but I don't kick myself when it doesn't happen.  Some of my most heartfelt prayers are hollered aloud to Jesus in the midst of my insane life homeschooling two boys, all three of us on the verge of tantrums.  Don't try to clean up your business and then get focused on Jesus.  It won't work.  You'll be worse off and no closer to God for all your efforts.  In fact, you will be farther and more focused on yourself.  My prayer for this Season is that my heart will be soft, my worship will be authentic, and my "To Do" list will be eclipsed by His love for me and those around me.