I can’t post pictures of our house…
But I can post strategically framed close-ups…
Close-ups of Christmas decorations…
Close-ups of our feline family members…
But that’s all I can show you…
Why can’t I show more?
Well, let’s say just say our house is not exactly in perfect shape…
In fact, it’s a little messy…
Here’s the story behind the mess…
“Let’s put up the Christmas decorations,” my wife calls.
“The house is a mess,” I answer. “let’s clean it up first!”
“I’ll start in the kitchen. You start upstairs.”
Our kitchen is a drop zone…
The counters accumulate everything we drop as we walk into the house…
Coats…gloves…mail…
Then there’s a dirty dish…
Or two…
Or…
Let’s just say several.
I clear the kitchen drop zone…
Put the dishes in the dishwasher…
Clean the counters.
The vacuum cleaner rumbles overheard as my wife cleans the bedrooms…
What time is it?
Uh oh.
Time to go.
We’re meeting friends.
The house is part-way picked up…
Far from perfect…
And there’s not one sign of Christmas anywhere in the house…
We only had so much time…
We chose how to spend it…
We chose to spend it in a struggle for our own idea of perfection…
Forgetting that whole meaning of Christmas is about not needing to be perfect…
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, Ephesians 2:8
The next day, we get up early…
And put up the Christmas decorations in the middle of the mess of our house.
It seems symbolic somehow…
A Reminder of God’s perfect love…
Set against the backdrop of our messy lives…
Reminding us how futile it is to strive to create a perfect Christmas …
Reminding us Christmas is already perfect…
A perfect gift from a perfect God…
Revealing his perfect plan…
Proclaiming His perfect love…
For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
Note: an original version of the is post first appeared in December, 2015
