For about 20 years now, I’ve wanted the same thing for Christmas. I often feel much like Ralphie, the main character in the Christmas classic, A Christmas Story. In the movie, all Ralphie wants for Christmas is a “Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model, air rifle.” At every turn, poor Ralphie is stymied by the prevailing sentiment that he will “shoot his eye out” should he get one. The desire of my heart is much more socially acceptable, but considerably more expensive. Every year, I hope to come down stairs to discover a rather large box under the Christmas tree. In said box will be an equally large acoustic guitar, a Taylor Grand Orchestra.
As the tone thus far would suggest, I have not yet received said Christmas gift, and truthfully, I don’t expect to anytime soon. While I may not own this particular guitar, I have accumulated a robust collection of guitars over the years. The crowning jewel of the collection is a Taylor Grand Auditorium, which was purchased for me almost 16 years ago. It’s a smaller version of the guitar I wanted, but it has proven more than capable to meet my needs. Also in my collection are two jumbo bodied guitars. One is a six-string which I purchased to play around campfires, the other is a beautiful 6-string which was just recently purchased for me by a very gracious friend. Again, not exactly the guitar I always wanted, but well beyond what I actually need.
Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the good things we already have and to inspire attitudes of gratitude and contentment.
In our consumer-driven age, I believe the proximity of Thanksgiving to Christmas is not inconvenient, but ideal. It is so easy for Christmas to devolve into a time to bemoan what we do not have as we lobby for what we want. Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on the good things we already have and to inspire attitudes of gratitude and contentment. Thanksgiving is a much needed reorientation of our perspective. While our modern conceptions of Christmas tend to bring attention to what we WANT, but do not yet have, Thanksgiving reminds us that God, in His grace, has given us what we NEED.
In May of this year, I began composing music for an original Christmas musical. One of the first songs I wrote is a song called “Not What I Had Planned.”[1] The song focuses on the stories of Mary and Joseph. As I reflected on the “good news” each of them received from angels, I couldn’t help but feel somewhat sorry for them. Here they are, a young couple preparing to celebrate one of the most important moments of their lives for that culture, and they’re told that they have been chosen for a task of special honor. They are going to bring God’s Son into the world and raise Him as their own. Both of them had to be thinking, “Wow! That was not what I had in mind!” It was neither what they had planned or wanted, but through their humility and gracious sacrifice, God provided the world with what it needed. He provided humanity with a Savior who would reshape and restore our relationship with God and one another. Again, maybe not in the way we wanted, but it is what we needed.
There is no greater reason to be thankful than God sending His Son to serve as the sacrifice for our sin, that we might have full and eternal life.
I think it’s appropriate to have some Christmas in our Thanksgiving. There is no greater reason to be thankful than God sending His Son to serve as the sacrifice for our sin, that we might have full and eternal life. I think we’d do well to let the overlap of the holidays flow both ways, though. We need a whole lot of Thanksgiving in our Christmas. It’s great to hope for that which we want, but should that blessing not come, we should still be grateful that God has given us what we need.
I probably won’t receive the guitar of my dreams this Christmas, but that’s really OK. God has already blessed me well beyond what I actually need. I find that sentiment to be true in every area of my life. Is my life perfect? Certainly not! There are a great many things I WANT that could make my life easier and/or better, but I have what I NEED. And for that, I’m thankful.
[1] On December 22, at 10:30am at First Baptist Church in Seymour, Indiana we will be presenting our Christmas musical, Let There Be Light: A Contemporary Christmas. We will be presenting the song referenced in this article along with 7 more original Christmas songs and Christmas narrations. Everyone is welcome…
