Christmas

“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

― C.S. Lewis

I read this quote after a long day of studying for finals, leaning over my books, learning about material that in the moment felt pointless. I walked outside, and the air bit my fingers. Then I saw the sunset through the trees. The sun was a golden mass, fading out slowly into a pink and purple smooth sky. A perfect watercolor. Most people weren't ooking at the sky at that moment – they were in their office working, or their dorm studying, or finishing classes for the semester.

We’re all looking forward to Friday night when we will be finished – looking forward to Christmas with our families, looking toward the new year. We’re waiting for the weekend and the next big thing and a new day that will surely be better.

But we are far too easily pleased.

Life is more than we ever dreamed, living is more than we ever thought.

Being the most alive we can be means forgetting ourselves and our troubles and ambitions of worldly pleasures and stand like a child, in awe of what is right in front of us.

What’s right in front of us is what God has placed there, and the person right in front of us is who God directed into our path, and the sunset is His reminder that we are so, so much more than we dare to believe. He offers us much more than we knew to ask for.

Christmas is the reminder that God is With Us. He is Emmanuel, among us. This Christmas season, look around at what’s right in front of you, and stand in awe of the miracles in daily life. Don’t settle for what’s temporary or surface-level. There’s so much more.

We are far too easily pleased.