Recently I heard someone say that they like Thanksgiving much better than Christmas because at Thanksgiving the focus is on being grateful for what we have, and at Christmas the focus is on getting what we want (or maybe more accurately, on what is lacking in our lives). I hope it’s more than that, but I get what they mean. There’s a lot at Christmas that threatens our contentment by tempting us to compare and covet, not just the things others have, but their life.
It used to be at this time of year our mailbox was filled with the “Christmas Letter” from friends around the country. The Christmas letter with glowing accounts of our friends’ “best life”…the highlight reel, the “brand”…the image we want to project…
But now with Facebook and Twitter it’s possible to read a perpetual “Christmas Letter” from friends all year long. Facebook and Twitter can be awesome tools to connect us in community. But they can also be places where I covet a life that’s not mine.
