The Reason for the Season

Welcome to Christmas 2015! As I write my first blog post, I can’t believe I’m kicking this thing off during the rush of the holiday season. Not just the holiday season, but on Christmas Eve no less. This brought to mind the desire to be perfect, hence the name of my blog, Not Perfect, But Present.

I grew up in a household where the Norman Rockwell picture of Christmas took place. I remember coming home from college one year and counting twelve Christmas trees, all decorated in my house. It was amazing! However, behind the beautiful decorations was endless work and shelves of boxes storing all those decorations the rest of the year. When I was a kid, it seemed like a perfect setup because I had no idea the extremes my parents went to for the perfect looking Christmas.

I do not have boxes of Christmas decorations; I had two boxes until this year when my mom passed down all my grandma’s ornaments to me, so now I have three boxes. Sometimes, I desire to provide my kids with the perfect Christmas motif that my parents provided me.

Our four year old pestered us this year to put lights on the outside of the house (The lights didn’t happen but we did drive around the neighborhood looking at lights after each of the three school Christmas concerts we attended. Our little town even hands out awards for lights. Our friends won again this year. They are the Christmas light masters.)

Earlier this month, my family went on the quest for the perfect Christmas tree. Okay, maybe I was the only one in the car thinking a perfect Christmas was out there. Living in rural Colorado, we don’t buy our trees from a lot; we obtain a permit from the United States Forest Service and hike to the middle of nowhere to cut down a real Rocky Mountain Christmas tree. When I thought we had found the perfect tree, we cut it down only to realize when we dragged it back to the car; it was too big for our truck bed. When I spotted it on the side of the mountain, it didn’t look that big, then reality set in when we were attempting, unsuccessfully by the way, to get it into our house. Eventually it went it after some significant trimming and a few scratches to the front door frame. While it took some adjustment to my expectations, what I thought was a mess and wouldn’t work into my vision of the perfect Christmas tree, turned out to be the best tree we’ve ever had.

This desire to be perfect even beyond Christmas has left me paralyzed with fear. This blog has technically been up and running for over a year, but one thing has been missing, the first blog post. So here it is. My desire to get a voice of reason out in the world during one of the most perfection ridden times of the year that we lose focus on the real reason for this season, celebrating the birth of Jesus, the only one to walk the earth in perfection.

In my head, I understand perfection is unobtainable, but tell that to my heart that strives to be perfect. I know I’m not perfect and God has extended me more grace than I could ever repay. Some of my favorite verses are in Ephesians, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)

I hope during this holiday season and striving for the perfect gift, the perfect tree, the perfect meal, we all extend each other a little grace, including to ourselves.