Can't see Christ for Christmas

It's nearing that time, the time where there's a mad dash around every store to find the perfect last-minute gifts, the best food, the outfit that's just right. Christmas, that time of the year where family is meant to come together and have that wonderful dinner, everyone should be over the moon with the gifts they receive, the room filled with joyful laughter and there isn't one moment of fighting; at least that's what the ads tell us... In reality something always gets burnt, there's that one family member who always starts something and the house is full of screaming children because you cannot for the life of you find the batteries you were sure you had bought to go in their toys.

So let's all be honest and say that while Christmas may be great it's not always the perfect holiday season from the movies, that is more so true for the weeks leading up to the big day. Every year you promise yourself that it will be different, more organised, everything done in advance and every year you find yourself doing the same thing as the year before. Why am I bringing this up at the beginning of December you ask? Well, its simple, I have already had one of those bad Christmas shopping days and boy did I learn a lesson from it.

It was a freezing cold, awfully rainy winters day, I had no sleep that night (thank you insomnia) and was in a foul mood with everyone and everything. I didn't do my morning bible study because my eyes were too sore to read, I completely forgot to pray and of course, it all went downhill from there. I had to go shopping for some items to make my home-made Christmas gifts (I had been placing so much pressure on myself about them, and my whole Christmas, being perfect) so I dragged myself out of the house through the pouring rain with a thin jacket (I couldn't find waterproof one,) walked the twenty minutes to the bus stop just in time to see my bus fly past me; waited a further twenty minutes for the next one only to discover just before it was due to arrive that I had left my purse indoors. So off I trecked back home to fetch it and then headed back to the bus stop. Finally an hour and forty-five minutes after leaving my house for the first time (it should have taken me half an hour tops) I was at the shop. I thankfully managed to get what I was looking for (after dropping everything and making everyone in the store stare at me as I tried frantically to pick everything up,) and was ready to go home (I had to be there in twenty minutes as a friend was coming over), once again I saw my bus wizz past and the next one wasn't for another twenty-five minutes. At this point, I literally stamped my foot in frustration (have you ever seen a twenty-something-year-old stamp her foot, me neither till then...) I decided that I was fully done with the day and that I would walk to the train station, it would take me fifteen minutes to walk and there was a train in, you guessed it, fourteen minutes. I walked as fast as I could with the heavy bags weighing me down, I was three minutes away when I finally for the first time that day let Gods name leave my lips... "Please Lord, please God let me catch this train." I quickened my step I was almost there I could see my platform, I could see my train if I ran I could make it and that's when my phone rang. Without checking caller ID I answered it was fast as I could while fumbling with my purse trying to find my card to pay, that's when I heard my friends voice say "Hey A, you still shopping? It's just I have to drive that way to come to yours so do you want me to pick you up? I figured that way you wouldn't have to wait on a bus or train." As she was speaking I watched my train go by, and stood in an almost stunned silence for a moment before being able to thank her for the offer and agree on a place for her to pick me up; the one time in that whole time I only spoke to the Lord once to ask him for something, no praise, no thanks, just God do this for me and not only did he listen he gave me something better. I thanked him all the way to the convergence point I had arranged and continued to praise and thank him for the whole day after that, from that point on my day got better.

Through that one simple act of talking to God, my day got so much better. I was so focused on the gifts, the mood I was in and the things that I needed for my self and my perfect Christmas that I couldn't see Christ through Christmas and my own bad mood. There's a song we sing at the children's summer group we go at church called "I will wave my hands" and in one part the lyrics are

"He's put me in a being, that has no trouble seeing that whatever I am feeling He is worthy to be praised."

That is what I forgot that day, to 1. Remember that Christ is the reason for the season, not having the perfect holiday or giving the best gifts; 2. that whatever I am feeling, good mood or bad, the Lord is always worthy to be praised, to be thanked and to just be spoken to.

So this Christmas whether it be during the hectic shopping or during the inevitable meltdown on Christmas day look for Christ because he is what counts; even if you're stressed out He's there, He's listening and He's worthy of your praise