Last night, I (Heather) was doing a little last minute
shopping. The lady checking out in front of me was on the phone with her
husband and was telling him that she was buying an artificial tree. Apparently the
real one he bought was already dead and it was only December 16th!
She told him the price of the tree, but assured him that it was on sale and that
she had a coupon. She hung up and turned to pay for her tree. The total
surprised her and she told the teller that it was supposed to be on sale. The
teller assured her that the total was the sale price and that she would not be
able to use her coupon on an item that was already on sale. The lady in front of me was very upset
and called her husband back to ask him what to do. I am pretty sure that his
response was “no” and she was NOT happy about it. She promptly told the teller
that she could not buy the tree. The teller replied with a soft “that is no
problem at all.” Then came the moment. The very frustrated lady said in a very
angry voice, “Well, Merry F-n Christmas”!
After the color came back into my face, I began to think how sad it was
that this lady was missing the entire meaning of what Christmas is supposed to
be about. She was missing the Joy of Christmas. She tried to put her joy in a
tree! So she was not only missing
out on a tree, but she was very angry with her husband for not giving her what
she thought would make her happy. What I wanted to tell her was that the tree
had no hope of bringing her joy. As silly as that sounds, we ALL do it! We all
try to find things of this world to bring us Joy and they ALL leave us feeling
empty! There is only one person that is designed to complete us, and that is our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Oh
for so many years I put that pressure on my husband, family, friends, and
“stuff”. It was all about what I
could get from them to make me happy. I always seemed to be in a desperate
search for someone or something that was going to do that for me. Then came the
reality that full and complete Joy was not wrapped up in my husband, or my
children, or my friends, or presents, or even a tree. But it is wrapped up in
swaddling clothes, and was born in a stable many years ago
for me. That baby is the only source of real Joy.
Heather
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