As
a new blogger, I’m feeling pressure to write a thankfulness post. In fact, by Facebook standards, I’m already
27 days behind. Neither my reluctance to
write this post nor my 27 day silence stems from a lack of thankfulness but
rather a lack of holiday enthusiasm. This
isn’t a newsflash to those of you who know me well, but those who don’t may
find it surprising. One would expect an
outgoing, hospitable, generally happy elementary school teacher who loves God
and her friends and family to also love the holidays. But I don’t.
The
truth is that I teach fourth grade rather than a lower grade partly because it
doesn’t require decorating the room seasonally or preparing construction paper
crafts. While my students are counting
down until Christmas, I’m counting down until AFTER Christmas when my life can
return to “normal.” My life is busy
during the other eleven months of the year, but during the month between
Thanksgiving and Christmas it blows past busy right to bedlam. Some would say that my lack of holiday
enthusiasm is aggravated by a lack of my own children, and that is probably
true to some extent, but I also don’t know how you folks with kids even survive
the holiday season considering how it leaves me feeling.
Up
until today, I’ve been in a little bit of denial that the next month is upon
us. I haven’t bought the first gift,
ordered cards, or decorated my house. As
a matter of fact, I’m still debating whether or not to put up a Christmas tree
this year. I know that my state of
blissful avoidance will come to an abrupt end tomorrow as soon as my sweet grandma
puts the turkey on the table. From then
on, it will be full speed ahead until January.
I will attend every event, purchase all the right gifts, help plan the
perfect parties and activities at church and at school, order and send the
cards, and maybe even decorate my house.
Hopefully, I’ll manage to do most of it with a (genuine) smile on my
face. But today, I am thankful for one
more day of normal before the bedlam sets in.
Every
year, I say that I’m going to be more enthusiastic about the holidays. I’ve tried planning different activities with
my class, at church, with friends and family… buying different decorations…
trying new recipes… buying glitzy sweaters…
and one year I even tried listening to holiday music (yes, that’s rare
for me). I can’t say that any of it has
worked particularly well and this year I’ve been feeling a little desperate for
a new perspective. Tonight, at our
Thanksgiving service at church, I think I found it. A gentleman whom I’m pretty sure was the
oldest in the room had some particularly wise words for the congregation: he
said oftentimes the things we are most thankful for are the ones we had to work
the hardest to get, but that’s not the case with our salvation, with our
relationship with Christ. He reminded us
that’s the most amazing gift, the most incredible blessing for which to be
thankful, and the ONLY thing we must do to receive it is open our heart to
Him.
So
here is my hope and my prayer this Thanksgiving Eve: that I’ll remember for the
next few weeks that this season isn’t about all those blessings that we work so
hard to get and hold so tightly to. As
wonderful as those things are, they can’t compare to the one blessing that we
didn’t have to work for at all because He was gracious enough to pay the price
and offer it to us at no cost. This gift
is available to every single one of us thanks to His mercy. We don’t even have to hold tightly (though we
should) because He holds us tightly every single day of our lives and
thereafter. That’s the promise of our
God and it’s more than enough to fill my heart with that enthusiasm I’ve been
looking for if only I’ll keep my heart open to Him. And I’m thankful. My prayer for you this holiday season is that
you’ll be the same.