I love the Holidays. Always have. Hopefully always will. Yet, as seasons pass, new challenges arise and I find at times a sense of melancholy seeps into this time of year. I recognize how much I’ve looked forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas for distraction, a temporary reprieve, a pocket of “happy” in a world of “sad.”
I’ve counted on the atmosphere and activities as a distraction to the disquiet of something else stirring in my soul.
The hustle and bustle, the wonderful smells, and the beautiful decorations remind me of things which are not the same as they once were. Losses, difficult to mesh with the joy of the holidays, accentuate loneliness.
This week I read a verse in 1 Samuel which helped me see that maybe I’ve carried things into the holidays which don’t belong in my arms. Things I need to lay down.
“And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty.” (1 Samuel 12:21 ESV)
An aged Samuel spoke the words. He had dedicated His whole life to God’s service, but his role in the spiritual leadership of a nation neared its end. He reminded the Israelites of their history, of God’s deliverance, His provision and providence. But as they were prone to do, they wanted more.
As the Israelites moved from one location to another, they carried gods with them. But those gods of gold, silver and wood had no true value or power. They were worthless.
Idols had always been their slippery slope. Samuel’s mention of “empty things” spoke of worthless idols. Unreal, vain, nothing. They took the place of God in their lives. Those images they carried could not bring the happiness for which they longed.
Did the Israelites recognize they carried empty things? Were they aware of sliding as they turned aside from God to seek nothingness? Were they blind or intentional as they left fullness and ran after thin air?
It makes me wonder. What are the gods I carry with me?
As I read this verse, on the cusp of 2024’s Holiday season, I felt perhaps God was asking me to lift high my desires and worries, those self-wrapped hopes and expectations, and shake the box. I wondered if inside, my heart carried His fullness or my own empty desires?What are the gods I carry with me into the Holidays? Share on X
With seasonal preparations under way, like the Israelites, I find myself looking at Holidays past and wishing for them to come again. I scroll through social media. I see what others have. I compare what my Christmas will look like through the lens of what I want. And like a child with a list for Santa, I’m nudged toward false fulfillments to fill the holes.
During the years of Samuel’s leadership, he experienced both Israel’s allegiance to God as well as their distance from Him. They wanted to be like other nations, and with their desires, their love and loyalty shifted. God Himself seemed no longer enough. And so, they begged for a king to rule over them.
Their eyes turned from the treasure of God’s reign to emptiness.
How quickly this time of the year can become a substitute without substance. When situations shake at my heart and find it rattling with misplaced desires and discontent, it’s tempting to look for something to plug the holes.
And while God delights in our delight, while He gives us gifts of enjoyment and undeserved pleasures, He alone remains God and He alone satisfies. Nothing, whether it is an object, house, desire, an ideal, a career, or even a person can ever take His highest place.
That gadget, that technological wonder, that new toy, those stylish clothes, and a myriad of must-haves can become a whole bunch of emptiness that amounts to nothing permanent.
“Empty things are empty,” Samuel reminds us, and from thousands of years past all the way to today they are still nothing. “They cannot profit or deliver.”
I’m so grateful for this verse from Samuel for it reminds me not to carry other gods with me into a season reserved for thankfulness and worship.
Like a beautifully wrapped Christmas gift with nothing in it or a Thanksgiving without gratefulness, unless my desires align with His, the season will be empty.
May our hearts belong to the fullness of Christ throughout the weeks ahead, and may we fill our hearts with adoration. He alone is worthy. We have so much to celebrate.
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