Empty hands, full hearts

            A little food for Advent weekend thought:
     It's quiet and dark, very early on this second Sunday of Advent.  I sit here gazing at our dark green Christmas tree sitting in the corner of our living room. We finally picked one out yesterday from the Farmer's Market--but still no lights, no decorations.  Just the pure, simple beauty of God's evergreen pointing to heaven.  And it's enough.
    Everything is going to be simpler this Christmas.  We're too far behind--what with Thanksgiving a week later, wedding in January, and puppy in December.  Many of the boxes with nativities and lights and knick knacks still sit packed away in the attic.  And for a while this was driving me crazy.
     But not anymore--for it's become so clear to me that the time has come to relinquish crazy expectations and embrace celebrating Emmanuel.  The focus should not, cannot be, all this stuff that comes with Christmas.  That's not where the joy comes from.  The focus must be on the astounding wonder of Christ, of God made human flesh, and coming down--so so infinitely far down--for us.  All for the divine, unconditional love of us.
     Such love should stagger us, humble us, and reorient us to what really matters this Christmas.  O gracious, how quickly I forget.  How easily I slip into the self-centered striving mode and forfeit the one thing I should be doing--the worshipping and loving mode.  Worshipping the Savior and loving His children.  Forgive me, Lord.
     So a little food for weekend thought for any of you who, like me, needed to be reminded to cease striving and instead refocus on worshipping and loving.  These are words written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer before his death to his fiance while he was imprisoned in Nazi Germany during World War II:
         "I think we’re going to have an exceptionally good Christmas. The very fact that outward circumstance precludes our making provision for it will show whether we can be content with what is truly essential. I used to be very fond of thinking up and buying presents, but now that we have nothing to give, the gift God gave us in the birth of Christ will seem all the more glorious: the emptier our hands, the better we understand … The poorer our quarters, the more clearly we perceive that our hearts should be Christ’s home on earth."
     Forgive us, Father, for expecting, for demanding so much--especially at this season of Christmas.  And forgive us for placing the unbearable burden of those expectations and demands upon others as well.  We want to have hearts overflowing with adoration and love because of what You've done and who You are.  Help us to relinquish the burdens of striving and instead return to the foot of the cradle...and the cross.  Might we worship You and love others well so that we, too, will have "an exceptionally good Christmas."  
     Empty our hands so that You might fill our hearts.  To God be the glory.