This past weekend I received the privilege to go see a performance of "The Christmas Story" at a local theater called Arizona Broadway Theater. The play is a must-see if you’re anywhere near the area, but the most impactful part of the play and story as a whole was the message it left you with afterward.
For those who do not know, the story circles around a young boy and his family during the month leading up to Christmas. The boy is nine years old and the one desire of his heart for the Christmas season is to get a deluxe BB gun under the tree. He devises some plans as to how he will go about convincing the strongly opposed adults around him to purchase the gun -- the play is a comical look into this journey. It is light hearted in nature and has much to offer as far as laughs and jokes are concerned, but the surprising thing was the message it sends the audience home with. I won’t give everything away, but through a series of misfortunate events in the time leading up to Christmas the family actually ends up better off. One of the ending scenes features the family around a dinner table at a Chinese restaurant on Christmas eating duck instead of turkey. Not exactly your traditional Christmas but what the family ends up learning is Christmas is about much more than trying to fulfill the perfect wish list and having everything go as planned.
As I began reflecting I thought about everything I see around me during this time of year. Going to the mall you’re lucky if you get out within a couple hours or find a parking spot in the same time frame. There is a sense of urgency and hustle in most every place you go and there is this attitude surrounding the atmosphere that things must be perfect. The perfect gift must be bought in the perfect time at the perfect price or else Christmas just won’t be the same. I’m guilty of having these thoughts too, but what I’ve reflected on lately is the beauty of Christmas is not in the perfection but the imperfection.
Think about it! The very beginnings of Christmas came about because a Savior was born to aid humanity in their imperfections. Love was not present because of what one did right and perfectly but instead in spite of what they failed to do. What if this season we had the same attitude? What if instead of being so focused and consumed on making everything perfect we learned and embraced laughing and loving through the moments that did not exactly go as planned? The true spirit of Christmas is the love that surrounds and just as the family in "The Christmas Story" realized, all we need is one another and the memories that form and make up their story. Have a Merry Christmas friends and celebrate all the good, ugly, and crazy that may come!
