Blog - Holley Gerth

The best way to celebrate the birth of the Child is with faith like a child.

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Confession: I often approach the Christmas season like a project. I want everything to look just like the holiday special I saw on television or the spread from the magazine. I make lists of all I need to do. I envision perfectly wrapped packages and lovely treats lining the kitchen counters. The house will stay clean and the lights will glow. My celebration of the Savior will be as peaceful as the nativity scene sitting serenely on my fireplace mantle.

But invariably chaos breaks out. Nothing goes as planned. My efforts fall short. I end up frustrated and stressed. Then I feel like I’ve let God down—that I somehow haven’t fulfilled His vision for what Christmas should be. Yet as I watched my giddy nephews build the messiest, most lop-sided ginger bread house I’d ever seen I remembered the words of Jesus, “Let the little children come to Me. Don’t stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14).

I realized all over again in that moment that childlike faith is what God wants and it must be different than what I often picture. Surely it’s messier, wilder and more full of grace. It doesn’t care so much about the result as the relationship. It makes room for laughter and chases away expectations. It’s about delight and wonder, humility and self-forgetfulness.

I’m not entirely sure about the fate of the infamous gingerbread house. I didn’t bring it home with me but I did take a truth that’s setting my heart free: The best way to celebrate the birth of the Child is with faith like a child.

XOXO
Holley Gerth

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Can I send you a gift this Christmas?

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