you can't hand make the greatest gift

Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer. Like so many, this season can leave me feeling a little disappointed, but some time ago, I started a tradition of adding more handmade into my Christmases.

Handmade gifts for all! Piles of Christmas cookies, carefully coordinated! Decorations hand crafted each year! Homemade greetings mailed to many!

I was filled with holiday cheer, and I loved it. I mean, obviously, I love handmade, the process of making, and sharing it all with friends and family. And I maintain that these are all good things.

It has gotten progressively more difficult to squeeze all of this in to life (imagine that!), and this year, I've barely made a thing (especially comparatively speaking). In fact, it's December 23rd, and I still have gifts to make. And all of this not-making, once again, left me feeling a little disappointed. And then, I encountered these words from Ann Voskamp's book, Unwrapping the Greatest Gift...

"Christmas cannot be bought in a store. Christmas cannot be created in the kitchen. Christmas cannot be made by hand, lit up, set out, dreamed up. Christmas can only be found--right there in a manger."

Did you catch that? My heart skipped a beat when I heard the words...Christmas cannot be made by hand. That was me! Yes, I have known for my entire life that Christmas is about Jesus, but I still seemed to let other things crowd in and crowd Him out as I tried to make it myself.

This year I've been discovering anew the unstoppable love and unimaginable grace of Jesus. I'm a mess, and we're all messes, and goodness knows, this world is a mess. And in the middle of it all is love and grace. The greatest gift.

I'll still be sewing and baking and stitching and more, but I'll do everything I can to remember that you can't hand make the greatest gift: Jesus.