I am sitting in the living room alone right now. I just put a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving (in two days) in the oven. Before that I put some dry brine on the gigantic turkey. The other pie crust I put in the freezer to deal with tomorrow.
I sat down a moment ago to start a show on Netflix, and some cheesy Christmas movie preview automatically started showing. I sort of balk at it in my head thinking, "It's not even Thanksgiving yet!"
Then I began to think, "I wish people knew about Advent. Is this even related to Christmas? Why are all these Christmas movies the same? "
All those heart warming cheesy Christmas rom-coms we find now on Netflix and the Hallmark channel that flood the screens as soon as the weather begins to get cold all seem to swirl around the same theme. Unfortunately it isn't Advent. It isn't even really Christmas. At least not Christmas if we're talking about the birth of Jesus Christ. I think most of them revolve around wishes.
"Christmas" wishes.
Will I get what I want? Will it be the most wonderful romantic man I've ever dreamed of? A knight in shining armor? Will it be the puppy I've been begging my parents for? Will it be a warm fuzzy feeling because all of my family is gathered around me drinking cider around the fireplace singing Christmas carols and sounding like Pentatonix?
Where did this idea that Christmas gives us all we ever wished for come from?
Maybe it's because Christmas gives us more than we could ever wish for.
I've been thinking a lot about those transcendentals lately. How the true, good and beautiful are supposed to lift our minds and hearts to God. The truth said and heard in our daily lives. The good people we meet, things we have, or food we eat. The beautiful Cathedral we worship in or earth we walk on.
All of these wonderful things we see and sometimes wish for have their place. They have their purpose, to help us remember the source of all truth, goodness, and beauty.
I think it's important as we break open the season of advent to remember that our wishes and desires need to be properly ordered, to reflect our truest desire, to be in union with God for eternity. Nothing is more exciting, thrilling, heartwarming, or beautiful than that.
God will love us infinitely more than that cheesy knight in shining armor from the holiday Netflix movie.
Who's excited for Advent? Woot! Let's prepare our hearts for Jesus.
