a simple Christmas :: thoughts for Advent
I've collected bins and bins full of holiday decorations since my hubs and I were married 9 years ago. As I sorted through it all this week, I found myself leaving much of it packed away. A lot of it is just not me. My style has evolved and my ferocious craving for simplicity has taken over. I'm grabbing onto the saying that less truly is more and holding onto it with a whole heart. I want clean and simple, light and bright, pretty and clutter-free.
So I set out my very favorite Christmas treasures and they sing. Fresh greens clipped from the perfectly imperfect tree can hold their own as a centerpiece. I'll never again underestimate the subtle power of the pine cone. I find beauty and breath in a string of hymnal page bunting, tiny bottle brush trees, and a bowl of Shiny Brites. In a season of more more more, I'm embracing less less less and it feels good good good.
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Tonight a thousand little lights twinkle on our tree.
My little sweetie snores in his bed and my Preacher Man is at meetings. Our dinner mess is still on the table and a treadmill jog is on the agenda, but nothing seems more right in this moment than sitting here taking in this soft glow.
Christmas tunes hum from my laptop. This one and this one play. Those little lights stretch and flare as I wipe my cheeks. These songs always do this to me. Tug at my heart and fill me up until the tears spill over. Reminders that Love came down as a baby and saved the world.
I take tree decorating slow. I'm tempted to leave it just as it is with only the lights, but tomorrow we'll hang ornaments and a bit of homemade garland. I'll end up rearranging half of the ornaments because my man always wants all of his at the top middle center and our little guy piles his favorites heavily on the bottom right hand side.
Tonight, though, these lights are more than enough.
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My craving for a simple Christmas doesn't start and stop with decorations and not penciling in too much on our calendar. At the heart of it is a yearning to see my Savior more clearly, with less earthly distraction. To leave space for my thankful heart to watch and wait for Him in hope and in joy.
This is my favorite time of the year and it's not just because of the fluff and the fun. It's because of Him.
Happy Advent, dear friends.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. ~John 1:14
