I happened to pass a home lavishly decorated for the holiday season. What’s the big deal, ’tis the season!

Yes, it’s true, and a joyful Merry Christmas to you.

I made a point of going back the following day out of curiosity and to check it out after dark. The front yard was packed with every possible inflatable made since the conception of holiday inflatables.

We have Joseph and Mary, Bluey, Rudolph, snowmen, the Grinch and every conceivable cartoon character. It was amusing, sure, but at the same time got me thinking about how much is too much, even of a good thing?

Let him alone, Barb, geez; haven’t you ever been guilty of indulging?

Of course, as I sit here finishing off the rest of my French chocolates. I’m just trying to make a point so play along okay!

Practically everything is available instantly to us in this country; so overindulging is easy. Verruca Salt from Willy Wonka quickly comes to mind— “Daddy, I want it now!” Ding dong! Here you go, baby girl.

The Christmas season is particularly challenging, being the season of giving, to generously give to others and to oneself. Honestly, I’m pretty good at taking care of me year-round, so I’ve been telling my husband lately that I don’t need anything.

Hence, we must consider the value of the season of Advent; the season of not yet, prepare your heart and wait on the Lord.

I don’t wait well, and I know I’m not alone; hence the booming multibillion-dollar business of instant stuff delivered to your door. We can be guilty of taking care of whatever we need or want ourselves and get grumpy with God when He takes too long to address things beyond our control.

Oh Lord, for you my soul in stillness waits, truly my hope is in you.

How can I hope in the Lord’s coming when I am busy filling the emptiness myself? I leave no void to be filled by God alone or the goodness He wants to provide. I’m stuffed, overfed, overstimulated, exhausted from making my own Christmas every minute so that when it finally arrives, I’m too pooped to anticipate and enter into the most profound silent night in all human history.

We tend to put enormous expectations on ourselves, specifically in this season: the tree, the decorations, a proper nativity set, the perfect gifts, the party, the meal. We live in stark contrast to that first Christmas when Joseph needed a visit from the angel to bring a pregnant Mary into His home. In his humility, he understood her incredible holiness as she carried the Son of God within her. His reluctance and unworthiness to have her live in his home. Before they could adjust to this life came the proclamation to travel to Bethlehem for the census.

“And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.” Lk 2:4-5

Mary was so far along in the pregnancy. It would be dangerous and difficult. Did they have everything they needed if the child should come? Where would they stay? Did he have sufficient funds or supplies? Then one evening in the piercing cold, He was born in a stable as the angels sang and spread the miraculous event to the shepherds.

“When the angels went away from them to heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go, then, to Bethlehem to see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” So, they went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger.”  Lk 2:15-16

I can be guilty of not spending time pondering this reality and the profound poverty that the Son of God was born to us. It wasn’t the perfect Inn or timing. Friends and family were absent, and food was scarce. That was the reality of the first Christmas: simplicity, humility, poverty and incredible love.

It is a reality check for all of us. Less is more. Poverty of heart allows us to become a vessel God can fill with His very self this Christmas.

We need to resist the hustle, seek interior stillness and wait on God. Waiting can be a kind of suffering of the not yet, by refusing to fulfil our desires ourselves now and leaving the gift-giving to God.

There is never “too much” when the gifts come from above because they are ordered to our good rather than satiating immediate temporal material wants.

Wait on the Lord and let Him overwhelm you this Christmas with so much more than chocolate and candy canes.

BIG NEWS! Crowned With Grace, a collection of thirty-one titles of the Blessed Virgin will be arriving any day. I wrote the chapter on Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Learn more about the miracles and attributes of our dear Heavenly Mother. You can pre-order on the contact page.