Distractions
God bless my wife! She likes to shop. There must be some brain chemistry involved because she shops for herself, me and sometimes other people. Honestly, I am surprised I have not heard her talk about shopping for her father which she did before he became immobile.
To my great benefit, this means that usually she shops for everyone we buy gifts for. Additionally, I’m no good at wrapping (okay, I have no desire to improve my wrapping skills either), so she gets to wrap all the presents she bought. Sunday afternoon was her big wrapping day when she sat down and wrapped all the stuff she had acquired to give away as gifts.
Even though she likes to buy stuff and, for the most part, wrap it to, she wants me to appreciate all the effort that she expends on our behalf (Oh, I do. Believe me I do!). One Sunday afternoon, I’d occasionally hear a comment such as “it must be nice to watch TV while you are waiting for the laundry to finish.”
Yes, I do the laundry.
For my wife, this time of year implies extra effort on her part to gather all the presents to give. Extra effort, in my assessment, implies stress and friction. For me, it’s almost the opposite. Usually, I have a few things that I’ve been focusing on that take a break at this time of year (probably because some of the participants have to shift into gifting mode) and I veg out or the sudden loss of stress causes me to get sick. Either way, we are both distracted from the true meaning of the season.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” - John 3:16-18 ESV
This made me think about the distractions to the true meaning of Christmas that we all get wrapped up in one way or another. Do you think that the Devil has engineered it that way? We all talk fondly of spending time with family and friends at Christmas time like it is a gift in and of itself. But maybe in our deep desire to spend time with friends and family we are distracting ourselves from growing in our walk.
“And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.’ And he said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’” - Mark 4:13-23
May God grant you peace and blessings and joy that only he can provide. Happiness is fleeting, joy is eternal.
