define necessity

I can’t get this image off my mind. 

ne·ces·si·ty (noun)

1 : the state of being in need

2 : pressure of circumstance

3 : something that is required

 b: an urgent need or desire 

Which is why it’s December 5th...and I haven’t bought a single Christmas gift. Nada.  Between that picture, finishing up the book Radical and redoing a house, we’ve been stalled figuring out what to do.  I mean, with house projects left undone, it’s hard to buy another bey-blade, but doesn't seem quite right to tell the boys “Merry Christmas! We bought caulk for your windows!!”

So, we have this dilemma.  A first-world dilemma, that is.  While reading the boys’ Christmas Wish-Lists touched my heart…I think about the mamas whose kids don’t have a pencil and paper to write down their 5 wishes.  And what would they be?  Clean Water…Rice…Milk to sustain a baby brother, Medicine to heal a little sister…   It makes my stomach turn and the tears fall to imagine.  How that mama feels, day after day…   

I’ve hesitated to post this for so long, because I’m not sure what the answer is.  Is giving our kids one gift from their wish-list, and then buying a chicken for someone in need enough?  Hardly seems so.  It seems like it would be a lot easier if there was a checklist of how much is right to give away, how much is okay to keep, and how much your kids should have.  But I haven’t come across one…  

And so, I'm over here pondering what celebrates Christ??  What honors Him?  
All I know is that {at the risk of sounding like debbie downer} it’s far too easy to be lulled to sleep on our pillow-top-mattressed-beds rather than waking up to see the world is so much bigger.  And there are *needs* so much greater than the latest gadget!  {Please don't hear me say buying presents is wrong, because I have plans to (in the next 20 days) buy some... *Great* ideas here and here.}  


May we remember Christmas is so much more than what we put beneath our tree.  Lest we forget to unwrap the very need for why Christ was born: The world was not right without a Savior.  It still isn’t.  So...may our lives be more about making His Kingdom known than building a comfortable one for ourselves.  

How does that look for you?  

Well, only He knows.  

What a beautiful promise that those who seek will find.

Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for.  Keep on looking, and you will find.  

Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.  For everyone who asks, receives.  

Everyone who seeks, finds.  And the door is opened to everyone who knocks.  

~ Jesus {Matthew 7.7-8}