All I want for Christmas is monotony!

All I want for Christmas is monotony!

For those of you who haven’t figured it out yet, the title of this little article here was my attempt at dripping sarcasm. How’d I do?

I mean seriously, who would want monotony for Christmas? Just for fun, I looked up some synonyms. Here’s what I found: sameness, boredom, dullness, repetitiveness, repetitiveness, repetitiveness, okay…you get the picture. I don’t know anyone who would admit that they want monotony for Christmas! Who wants to tear into a present full of the “same ol’ same ol’?” Who wants to un-wrap a big box of bored? Never mind the pretty paper and big red bow…monotony just isn’t exciting. I can’t speak for anyone but myself, but frankly, I don’t want a hefty heap of monotony for Christmas this year. So, what do I want??

I read something today that got me a little excited. It went something like this: Without discovery, all you have is monotony. This one little statement got my thinker thinking! Again, just for fun, I looked up some synonyms for discovery. Check these out: detection, finding, unearthing, sighting, and my favorite – breakthrough! Now we’re talking! So this year, what if instead of settling for a big bundle of monotony, we rip into a big, beautiful box overflowing with discovery.

Here’s the deal. Year after year we hear the same Christmas story. We hear how God willingly took on flesh and came to the earth He created as a beautiful baby boy. We are familiar with the shepherds in the field, the angels proclaiming peace on earth, and we picture a big bright star over a manger while cute little barn animals look on. But mostly, more than focusing on the meaning of that “Silent (which is debatable)Night, Holy Night,” we are running around like chickens with their heads cut off (I’ve always hated that saying), shopping to the horrid sound of Feliz Navidad blaring over the store speakers and focusing on what kind of sales we can find before the 25^th.We have thoughts of, “Are we able to get the kids what they really want, and what kind of ugly sweater can I buy Aunt Jean, and why did I have to draw Uncle Bob’s name again, he is so impossible to buy for and….” Seriously, am I lying? Gee, sounds like the same ol’ same ol’ to me…or should I say, sounds awfully monotonous. Bleh.

What if this year was different? No, wait! I’m serious! I mean really different.

One of my favorite scriptures is Jeremiah 33:2-3 “This is what the Lord says, He who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it – the Lord is His name: Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

Let me lay out for you where my mind is going with this…

God, the Creator of the Universe, the Sovereign Lord over all, invites us to call to Him (wow, what a privilege!) and He says that He WILL answer us and tell us GREAT and UNSEARCHABLE things we don’t know!? (Wow, what a promise!!) Know what that sounds like to me?? A big, beautiful present bursting open and full of discovery!

“When you take away discovery, all you have left is monotony.”

Sounds to me like our God wants to surprise us this Christmas! You see, we can never exhaust all of the wonders of God. We will never get to the bottom of all He is, of all He has to give, and all He wants for us to discover about Himself. There will always be gifts of “unsearchable things” that we haven’t even begun to unwrap. So the question is… will we leave the packages of monotony and head straight for the boxes of discovery instead? Go ahead. Tear into one. I bet God has some amazing things to show you this Christmas season that will make you never want to settle for monotony again!

Merry Monotony-less Christmas!

Paulette