What do you want for Christmas?

It’s rather gluttonness, actually.
Each year before Christmas we would make our children clean out their closets/toy boxes so they could make room for the new things Santa would give them. 

We made ourselves feel better about this by giving the toys to Goodwill or another local non-profit receiving them. 

Despite the fact that our kids had way too much “stuff,” it was always interesting to go through this experience with them and hear their rationale around what they chose to give away and what they sought to keep. They, just like you and I do, applied special meaning to certain things. 

The worst was a quite large Lego construction. It seemed every time I would put Andrew to bed I’d knock the thing over and pieces would fall off. This would create a drama all its own because I would struggle to know how to put it back together again. I tried unsuccessfully to use the “Pre-Christmas Purge” to convince him to tear it apart and put it with all the other Legos he owned. He dug his heels in and passionately refused. Curious as to why he was so bent on keeping this one structure I asked him why. 

“It’s because you and I made it together, Mommy.” 

The Lego thing stayed for years. 

Andrew didn’t want to let go of that object/creation because it had emotional significance to him. It reminded him, whether he consciously knew it or not, of the bonds we shared together while building it. 

There are opportunities we each have in our lives to create bonds with God (Love) that will cause our lives to be richer and more fulfilling than we can ever imagine. Yet, in order to do that we must examine what we allow ourselves to be attached to. 

Are we attaching ourselves to things trying to fill a void somewhere deep in our soul?

Are we clinging to some mental ideal, thinking that “if only” a situation would be a certain way, we’d have joy and peace? 

Or are we attaching ourselves to the promise that comes in the gift of the Christ child?
The promise that when we remember that happiness/joy is not found extrinsically but instead through relationships with one another and The Divine. 

What attachments in our lives can we let go of to make room for God?