Estimated reading time: 4 minutes:-)
Lately, I’ve been blasting Christmas music in my car, wearing my fuzzy Christmas socks all around the house, and lighting candles in my room every day. Christmas is my favorite time of the year! Our house is decked out with Christmas decor, our tree is up and shining bright, and I still haven’t grown out of the advent calendar tradition (which is a little embarrassing, but whatever:-)
I LOVE Christmas. But every year, while I’m usually overjoyed at Christ’s coming and the warmth, togetherness, and joy of the season, I always feel a deep desire to share it with someone special.
I think it’s normal to wish you were dating someone when you’re single, and I’ve had that feeling before, but that’s not necessarily what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the longing to share Christmas with the one, my future husband, wishing I could meet him sooner. And if you feel the same, I want to encourage you this morning.
My best friend and I are known for dreaming about what life will be like when we’re moms. It’s a tad ironic, mostly because the world these days tells women they can be anything (professionals, teachers, scientists, everything), which is all good, but me and her seriously just want to be moms. Of course, we have dreams alongside that dream. But being a mom is one of our biggest missions.
I can’t wait until I can open gifts with my kids on Christmas morning. Drink hot chocolate by a crackling fire with my husband. Hang ornaments with my family and cook a big breakfast for them on that special morning. I’m so excited for that time in my life.
I call this ‘looking at what I can’t see.’ I don’t know who my husband will be, who my kids will be. But I can picture it so beautifully.
And picturing this future can be encouraging. It can be beautiful and amazing and inspiring. But it can also cast as shadow on the present, which has happened to me.
I long for the future so intensely, I start resenting my present situation, even though right now is amazing and beautiful and important, too!
And I want to remind you of that same thing:
Maybe you aren’t dating the one right now. Maybe you’ve never even met them. Maybe you feel like this Christmas is going to suck because everything looks different, and you just wish someone would hold your hand and tell you you’re beautiful through it all but no one seems to be interested in the position.
But I’m telling you: one day, you’ll look back on days like these and miss them.
Your present is just as important as any future outcome, and God’s gifts are just as present here as they will be then.
Ever heard of Philippians 4:13? “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” Every teenage guy’s theme verse. But listen to the verses that precede this radical statement: “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.”
Jesus is enough.
It’s a promise I’ve had to remind myself the last few weeks when the singleness feeling kicks in.
Jesus is enough.
You don’t need a boyfriend to make you feel beautiful. Jesus already whispers that over you a hundred times a day.
You don’t need a boyfriend to make you feel loved. Jesus already loves you so much he died for you, and walks through every day by your side, through thick and thin.
You don’t need a boyfriend to be important. God calls you chosen. God calls you his child. God calls you a daughter of the king, and those are all titles that are a part of your identity. They are SO important, and they can’t be taken away.
You don’t even need a boyfriend to have a good time. I know that sounds weird, but I think part of the allure of dating all the time is the fact that it’s fun. It’s a blast! But do you need someone to still experience joy?
1 Peter 1:8 says, “And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.”
In Jesus, there is so much more joy than any human or object could invoke. And while Jesus obviously can’t be a ‘boyfriend’ to you, like some cheesy Christian slogans might claim, he can be a source for that inexpressible joy we long for.
I’m not saying you should ‘date’ Jesus in this season.
But I am saying that Jesus is enough.
One day, you will see what God was doing all along. His plan is so much bigger and better than our own! And one day, Lord willing, I will look back on this season and smile about how I imagined my future family, because the family I’ll have then will be so above and beyond anything I could ever imagine.
But for now…Jesus is enough.
I will stay and wait for his plan to unfold, in his timing.
This season is in his hands, and all the seasons to come will be there, too.
And your season is held by the creator of the universe. So trust his timing and his enough-ness, because he loves you more than anything.