Swirling Through The Mist of A Mess

Perhaps it’s the senses evoked by Autumn and a mind bent towards leaves blowing in the wind that have me thinking of things that swirl.  Or maybe it’s the fact that I turned another year older on Thanksgiving, and the years seemed to have just miraculously swirled away.  Nevertheless, it’s Christmas time, and everywhere I look, I see signs of cheer.  The air is full of the aromas of the season.  Thanksgiving turkey is blending into Christmas ham, and dual holiday sweet potatoes are on the menu.  There is the feeling of love sneaking into the hearts of most everyone.  And, is it the happy mist of glee we are feeling?

Oh, oh. Okay. Squeak, squawk to a brain cringing stop!! Hold the press!! Freeze the frame that’s holding the perfect photo!!

Who are we kidding?  In this world of get it quick and dirty, the least of these and/or the worst of those.  Why did my holiday movie pleasantries have to be turned into a reminder of mess?  All of a sudden, Deck the Halls and Silent Night no longer sound beautiful.  Imagine all those Christmas carols banging against the clatter of the discordantly minor-sounding noise that had begun to ring in my ears.

I’m no bah hum bug type of person.  As a matter of fact, I’m the ambassador for all things leading up to the celebration of the birth of Christ!  But that doesn’t seem to mean that stuff can’t and won’t happen, though.

You see, I saw it, felt it, smelled it.  I was starting to make the first batch of holiday sweet potatoes.  Coincidentally or not, it was right at the very moment when the holiday movie on television was reaching a big letdown on the promise of saving a town’s Christmas.  That was a bummer, and to top it off, my letdown poked its unwelcome head into my yuletide harmony at the same time.

I opened the bag of sweet potatoes full of anticipation.  I washed one brown-skinned potato, followed by number two and number three, and placed them in the pan of water on the stove ready to be boiled.  But then I got to the fourth potato.

My spirits were soaring.  I was listening to my holiday movie in the background and humming the words to a song in the latest play I was in.  Oddly enough, that fourth potato was already cut and had somehow found its way into the bag turned upside down.  Suspecting nothing was amiss, I turned the sliced potato over, and to my chagrined surprise, the potato was black on the inside.  I mean, it was black!  Both halves, black!!

Humming stopped; movie sound faded against the inner roar of disgust that pounded between my ears.  Swirling the moment through my mind only agitated me more, and I just threw that potato in the trash, all the while shaking my head in dismay.

Then I thought about it for a moment.  I allowed my disdain to settle and a calmer frame of mind to prevail. I pulled the halved potato back out of the almost empty trash bag.  I went to get cell phone. 

My husband was in the kitchen when I returned.  So, I showed him the potato. 

“Yes, that's a nasty mess,” he said in his deep voice.

Using the camera feature on my cell phone, I took a picture and once again threw the potato in the trash.  I returned to the other potatoes.  But my mind would not completely settle. I began to feel like something else needed to be done.  I grabbed my cell phone one more time and took a photo of the sweet potato packaging.  Can you believe that “Market Fresh Produce” was printed on the package?

I received the potatoes from someone who went to a store that was supposed to be helping those in need of assistance this time of year.  I was going to prepare the meal as my way of helping out.  So now my thoughts were a mess.  My holiday cheer was dampened, and I was just tired of being tired.  Who thought this would be a good thing to do?  All I saw was a big unsavory mess!

So, here are a few thoughts on cleaning up the mess.  To those who want to help the less fortunate at Christmas time (or any other time, for that matter), don’t do it by giving them a bah humbug.  Don’t do it by making a mess and calling it merry.

It is bad enough whenever someone receives a bad product from a store.  But when you do this in the name of helping the poor, it’s a hot mess.  It is like rolling the bulldozer over Christmas land before the first snowfall.  (Okay, I sidetracked our conversation over to the movie I was watching.)

Back to my sweet potato distraction.  Those who packaged this product must have seen that the potato was rotten.  It’s not like it was a whole potato whose skin hid the spoiled stage of things.  It was already cut in half!!  So why sell it?  Why put it with the product that will be given to someone who is seeking assistance?  If it makes its way to a food bank operated by churches/places of worship, don’t we have a duty to do better?

Matthew 25:40-45 tells us that Jesus likens what we do for the least to what we do for Him.  How many rotten sweet potatoes were passed off as fresh produce this holiday season? 

Well, I say that one is too many, and this is not the mess I want to show to Christ.  Do you?

Now I know I am not the only one who has or will open something this holiday that will be a mess. If you get it, don’t tell me that you will not wonder how it ever was placed in the “This would make a nice thing to give” pile.  Do you give your leftovers, your toss aways, your rotten and ill-begotten away, and pat yourself on the back and say, “I helped?

This is a swirling mist of mess, and we are getting more and more caught up in the whirlwind.  And, for us Christians, Jesus is watching!  Do you really want to get turned away?  You know what I mean, too.

Don’t throw that mess in the trash and say, “Oh well, better luck next time.”  Photo it and share the pictures.  Tell someone and insist that suppliers do better.  Replace that hot mess with some fresh goods, some new cheer.  Let’s get a better outlook on the holiday.  This year, give your best.  After all, Christ gives you his best every day.  Let’s give Jesus a win!

So, remember, if you have something that you know is wrong, please don’t say, “I’m going to give this mess to the poor.” Keep it for yourself and give the poor a gift that would make Christ smile and say, “Well done.” 

So, what am I doing? I’m putting the cheer back in my holiday.  I’m turning that sour-sounding music off in my head.  It’s going to be another wonderful Christmas.  The smells will be fresh and beautiful.  I close my eyes and see the wonderful holiday unfolding.

But don’t think for a minute I won’t be calling out the mess.  You call it out, too.  Let’s get those nagging, hindering whirling things out of the way.  Let the Christmas carols ring out.  Christmas angels and Thanksgiving turkeys.  Christmas trees and Nativity scenes.  Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.  Get ready for all the ways the holiday is celebrated.  Whatever your choice, celebrate the season with gusto!  Stop the swirling mist of mess and count on having a Holly Jolly Christmas this year!!

For me, that means quieting the disquietness of this moment so that I can return to ringing out the news that Jesus Christ, our Lord Savior, was born.  And that’s reason enough to give our best!!

Merry Christmas!!