Perfect isn’t Perfect

As the final preparations for our holiday weekend are accounted for, I find myself returning more and more to a lesson that has been brewing for many a season…

Not everything is merry.

Yet time and again, I find myself and most of humankind striving for perfect.  

As a child, when my Christmas Day would come to a close…I would rank the day! 

“This was a good year!”     ~or~     “Whoa, that one was hard…”  And I have a good family! Normal glories and gulps. Cherished moments and miserable clunks. Clearly, I was always looking for perfect.

And in hindsight, I wonder how many ‘moments’ I missed, looking for or working to make that which does not exist.

So often, I hear people admitting the struggles, the tension, the stress and the sadness that accompanies the season. It is no surprise that poverty, mental illness, family fractures, illness and distance work against ‘perfect.’ 

And yet we push, for ourselves, our children, for those we love, as we strive to make a fairytale from a reality show called life. 

But this year… after a lot of observing and soul searching… I’ve decided to find my Christmas in the everyday.  

Because faith sharing with friends does light my soul. Baking a batch of cookies with one I love, sweetens life.  Sitting in the dark of struggle with only the warmth of each other’s love will bring strength. Laying one’s hand on a lonely shoulder can make all the difference. Dragging in a neighbor’s garbage can might have the same lovely sound as jingle bells for an elderly neighbor. Picking someone NOT on your gift list, and surprising them… is almost perfect…!

My resolve is to not rank Christmas this year… Rather, I am challenged to measure the gift of the season by life’s surprises that ARE at every turn, even amongst the loss, pain, struggle and tension. 

I hope you do find them! They are what MAKE Christmas. Not prefect. Just Christmas. 

When we discover those moments, we will recognize them because they have so much more sustaining power and grace. They don’t go away when the holiday boxes get packed back up… they keep paying forward… they keep shining outward and onward.