Merry Christmas. Happy Christmas. Happy New Year. Joyful Holidays. What if these glad-filled tidings don’t express my truest thought for what I wish to extend? Maybe the more accurate desire is for each of us to have a contented Christmas, a contented New Year, a contented Holiday Season.
I see distraction all around me. Our life journeys are filled with distraction. Everything from my microwave to the latest Hollywood film, to my digital thermostat, to cutting down a green pine tree…distracts.
I am living in a world that has taught me to be distracted; have the most, own the best, be the greatest. But, what if life doesn’t offer its best? What if my microwave breaks? What if my tree this year and each sequential year there after is artificial instead of freshly cut? What if one day my husband dies unexpectedly? Uncalculated. Death was not part of my Christmas plan.
Distracted. I guess you could say I am distracted.
But, then again, aren’t we all? Doesn’t each of us have something that distracts? Something that pulls us away from contentment and leads us astray from what really matters? Tempts us? Causes us to wander? All along trying to find something that satisfies longer than the moment.
I am wishing for my friends and family and even acquaintances, a very Contented Christmas. For even when we do not feel happy, and when our hearts are not merry, it is possible, I have come to believe, to be content.
In some regards, this may be all we could ever want or truly wish for. Distractions aside, I have started to ask myself some very difficult questions. Can I still function when something in my life breaks? When a light bulb burns out or a fuse shorts? Can I still move forward when the person closest to me on this earth was abruptly taken? Can I still trust that God will fulfill the brokenness? Is it possible to grieve with a contented heart? Does contentment reach beyond simply being happy or simply being sad? Where does our satisfaction come from? Does it exist in having the perfect tree or being entertained by the latest movie? When all perfection falls apart, can I still be satisfied with the broken pieces surrounding me?
I think maybe so. I am trusting maybe so. I am trusting that when the conveniences of life are not in their proper places, that God in his magnificent grace will let contentment fill the crevices of a shattered heart. That he will make life whole again. That he will ultimately satisfy.
