My schedule tends to get a bit nutty this time of year—I'm sure you have no idea what I'm talking about...
Right after Thanksgiving, my list gets made:
· Order and send out 160 Christmas cards. This is the first year I didn’t hand-address all of them. I hate how impersonal labels are, but I used them this year to keep my hand from cramping up and falling off. AND, this is the first year they made it out before Christmas—they usually double as New Year’s cards since I am generally always running behind.
· Make shopping list and Christmas budget. Plan on NOT putting gas in the cars in order to help pay for Christmas.
· Run out and purchase all gifts or order on Amazon. (I went with Amazon this year and it only took me about 3.5 frustrating hours of on-line glitches and cancelling and re-ordering to finally get the majority of our Christmas gifts purchased.) Hallelujah!
· Wrap presents not ordered on Amazon (this is still not completed.)
· Buy real tree and put up all decorations. I was sick the weekend this was scheduled, so my darling husband did most of the heavy lifting. The girls and I put up the ornaments etc. But the whole process wasn’t complete for days and we don’t even do outside decorations—I don’t know how people manage to do that—if you have lights on your house/trees/bushes, you have way more time/gumption than I do. Either that, or your Elf On The Shelf helps you.
· Bake goodies for neighbors. This is nowhere near complete. This weekend is the weekend for that little adventure. I’m excited!
· Listen to Christmas music non-stop. (Check.)
· Buy cheap, creative White Elephant gift for gift-exchange.
· Attend Christmas parties galore. Dress cute-casual-festive, lecture children on behavior inside other people’s houses and at fancy parties. Bring nice hostess gift.
· Buy gift cards for teachers, baby sitters etc. Have my children sign their names and draw pictures.
· Decorate our gingerbread house—it could be Easter by the time we get around to that one.
· Help with school Christmas parties for kindergartener and 3rd grader.
· Be Merry and Bright.
· Focus on the true meaning of Christmas instead of all the hustle and bustle.
· Avoid eating too much.
(Those last three have proven to be the most difficult.)
All-in-all though, things were going fairly smoothly in spite of a giant list and crazy traffic and last minute dentist appointments etc.
THEN, our heat went out. Which was actually a good thing since the “Heat Exchangers” had holes in them allowing medium amounts of Carbon Monoxide into our house at a steady rate. We could have died. So: Merry Christmas to us, we now have an all-new air unit (which was not in our Christmas budget) and a Carbon Monoxide detector, which we should have had before, courtesy of my dad and Brad! But, all’s well that ends well, right?? Being not-dead for Christmas is always a good thing.
On Tuesday, they were here installing the new unit. The technician had to come in and out of the front door fairly regularly, and he would always knock which was polite of him. I’d run to answer the door every time. No prob.
Around lunch time, I sat down at the kitchen counter in my nice, cozy, Christmasy house to eat my bowl of Butternut Squash soup (no, I did not make it, but I did warm it up!) Everything was so nice, and quiet, I decided to make a phone call to my friend Diana who happens to live in South Africa. She answers, but tells me they have house guests. We were trying to figure out the best time for me to call back when all heck broke loose.
My neighbor was calling in on the other line.
The Heat-tech was knocking at the door.
“Hold on Di”—I got rid of the phone call.
“Hold on Di”—I ran to answer the door.
With the phone still pressed to my ear, I swing the door open for the guy and in runs a stray dog!!!
I give the heat-tech a wide-eyed semi-irritated look.
Diana is asking me if I can talk tomorrow morning.
The heat-tech says “oh, that’s not your dog?”
I begin chasing the muddy dog around my house.
Somewhere in there, I boot Diana off the phone.
How did this happen? Wasn’t I just sitting down for soup and a chat with my far away friend!?
Isn’t that how life goes though? We think we have everything under control and then wham! We have craziness come up unexpectedly. Life can be downright chaotic this time of year—but sometimes it has nothing to do with the season.
My neighbor was having a bad day yesterday because she got her car stuck on a little brick wall as she was backing out of a friend’s driveway. Several people had to stop and help her and since school had just dismissed for the day, everyone she knew was driving by and saw her stranded. I think she felt like everyone was pointing and laughing. But, thanks to a man who ran and got his chain and jack, she was freed and able to rush home to get her daughter ready for her ballet “recital” of sorts. Talk about a hectic afternoon. To top it all off, her son accidentally hit one of her friends (me) in the back of the head with a tennis ball. He felt horrible about it and so did my neighbor (I was fine thanks for asking). I’m sure she felt like “what else can go wrong today!?”
These two stories pale in comparison to some of the chaos and terrors that the rest of the world face this time of year and all the time for that matter. But, whether the problems are big or small, they still make us cry out for help. They still make us wish for peace.
Leviticus 26:6 was one of God’s promises to the Israelites--
6 “‘I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove wild beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country.
You will lie down and no one will make you afraid! (Sounds good to me.)
I will remove broken heaters and stray dogs and wild afternoons of car trouble from your land. And the sword (or the tennis ball) will not pass through your neighborhood. (slight paraphrase).
Ahh, sounds better than a bubble bath, doesn’t it?
Well, until that day comes, we live in the chaos and look to the Prince of Peace to calm our hearts and minds. Here are some things that have helped me.
Isaiah 26:3 urges us to trust in God.
You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.
Matt Redman has a song that says:
“There will be an end to these troubles, but until that day comes, we’ll live to know you here on the earth.” Check out rest of the lyrics for some serious encouragement.
Another good song is Hillsong’s None but Jesus. One line from the song says:
"In the chaos, in confusion I know You’re sovereign still"
My prayer is that no matter what sort of chaos you are facing today, you’ll be able to take a deep breath and feel the strength and very real presence of the Prince of Peace.
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