Today is not an official holiday on anyone's calendar, including mine, but it's felt like a holiday. It occurs to me as I'm writing that it might actually have been a lot like a vacation day, but I don't know much about that. Vacations aren't really my thing, but, after today, I might need to reconsider. The reason this has felt like a holiday is not because of what I didn't do today. It's because of who did my usual activities with me. My son Ryan is home. He rolled in from Atlanta last night and I am thrilled to have him home! Every task has seemed easier because it's been shared, (especially my computer tasks)!
Among other things, Ryan and I have done a little cooking today. Zucchini bread and egg custard pie were on the to-bake list. I'm not exactly sure what went wrong, but what we actually made is zucchini flatbread and eggless custard pie. Very yummy. Very different. Not at all what I had in mind.
I hate to admit this, but there was a time when imperfect bread and eggless custard would have gone straight to the garbage and been replaced by another round of baking. How silly was that? Instead, we've laughed about the "new recipes" we've discovered, eaten them anyway, and enjoyed the variation. After all, variety is the spice of life, right?
Do you know what else is the spice of life? Imperfection. That's right. Imperfection is actually fairly entertaining and a lot of fun. I like perfect. Don't get me wrong. In fact, I prefer perfect. In my perfect (aka fantasy) world, every loaf of bread rises to lofty heights. Every custard pie is creamy and firm.
This isn't a perfect world, however, and I'm not a perfect woman. In fact, you aren't perfect, either. Gasp! Can you believe I said that? I did, though, and I said it because it's true. The sooner we can exchange our fantasy of perfection for the reality of our own imperfection, the better life will be. The freedom to laugh at my mistakes and the ability to not just look for the good in any situation but actually find the good there are both wonderful prizes. They were not achieved without a fight. My pride and my control did not want to lose, but thank God they did!
During the holidays, those of us who live in the fantasy world known as Perfection will have the opportunity to be totally devastated by the things that go wrong and make everyone around us miserable. This year, let's do things differently. Let's embrace the imperfection and enjoy the variation. Let's laugh before we even consider crying. Let's remember what the holiday is about. Jesus. The celebrations this week don't have a single thing to do with bread or custard, regardless of how perfect. It's all about Him, so let's hang on to that fact and let go of ourselves.
Have a holy, happy holiday and a very Merry Christmas!
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