The Contentment Tree

For the last few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about Christmas. I have been nostaligic about Christmases past, excited about Charlotte's first this year, and uncertain about Christmases to come.



I have really been struggling with the materialism of the holiday. I love gifts! In fact, gift giving and receving is one of my "love languages." But, I feel gifts have become a distraction from the real "reason for the season." Just look at the Black Friday madness this last week- people trampling over one another, using waffle makers as weapons, and even using pepper spray to get stuff we don't really need. As Steven Colbert puts it, Christmas has become a "consume-icaine."



Today as I was decorating my Christmas tree,I was thinking about what Christmas will be like next year without a house full of decorations, crowded mall shopping, cyber Monday, gift-a-thons, party overload, and long to-do lists.



Then it happened. The tree fell over- fully decorated.



And we do not have one of these new fancy trees that are pre-lit and easy to assemble. No. Our's is 7 years old and cheap. You have to put every branch in its hole and put every strand of lights up. Decorating our tree takes hours. And just as I finished, I tried to move it a little and it fell. And bent the base that was already bent and repaired from last year's falling of the tree. This year, it was beyond repair. The harder I tried to fix it, the worst it got.



So I threw it in the trash.

And I put our ornaments on the tree we already had in the living room. This year, we are having what I call a "Contentment Tree." And I love it.



This Christmas, I am praying that I can learn to be content with less. For after all, it is the holiday in which we celebrate the King that was born in a barn. Now that trully is being content with less!



"What self denial! What self abasement! What self emptying! He, whom no infinitudes can hold, is contained within infant’s age, and infant’s form. Can it be, that the great ‘I AM THAT I AM’ shrinks into our flesh?" -Henry Law.

This is the reason for the season.