Is it just me, or are things simply more complicated nowadays?  As you know, I like cars, I like looking at cars, I like working on cars, well, with things getting more complicated, I tackle less and less in the garage.

This morning, the sun shone in my car just the right way, revealing a hundred little (very little) wiggly strands of metal running from top to bottom in my windshield.  I have a heated windshield.  The windshield has radar attached to it that needs to be adjusted when the glass gets changed (I’ve gone through two of them so far).  The windshield has designs in it for a camera and for rain sensors.  Some have antennas in them.  The first cars didn’t even have windshields, but for many, many years were simply a piece of glass.

Then I looked in the rear-view mirror.  That used to be a little piece of glass, mounted on the dash or the ceiling that let you look backwards.  Now, a mirror changes color to cut glare, it displays the temperature or your direction in an LED readout.  It has reading lights, and some even a whole satellite communications system.  And yes, rain control sensors and cameras.

Oh, and the side mirrors, the ones attached to the door.  That used to be a little piece of reflectorized glass, attached to the door with some kind of indecorous handle.  Maybe, in a fancy car with a pivot so you could adjust it.  Now?  Now they have thermometers in them.  The mirrors have grown substantially bigger.  A motor folds it against the car.  Another motor moves it around instead of that old pivot.  All this necessitates a big plastic casing to fit around those motors and a hundred wires.  They have directional signal lights, courtesy lights, cameras, and lest all those electronics get uncomfortable, heating.  If your mirror broke back in the day, you went to K-mart and $2.00 later you screwed it back on.  Today?  Five hundred dollars for the mirror, two hundred for painting and a week later you treat the mirror like it was made of gold.  And you certainly didn’t go to K-Mart.

And don’t get me started on steering wheels…. They’re so complicated that you have to coordinate them to your VIN number.

Like Christmas.  You used to go to the woods, chop a tree, and put some homemade decorations on it.  Maybe rip some mistletoe off a tree for good measure.  Now?  Decorations not only go up inside, but have to go up outside.  They have to blow up, light up, change colors, blink, blink to music, and come in any form or character known to man except Jesus in the manger.  In our neighborhood we have Grinches and Blueys and Calvins and Sponge Bobs, and even a display of a giant Donald Trump next to a baby Donald Trump next to an eagle.  Christmas has become complicated.  You used to pile in the car and go to Grandma’s house. Now you have to fly somewhere, take off your shoes and belts and jackets and… you have to practically undress in front of strangers to get on a plane you hope is not delayed. Then you pray that your flight back doesn’t get cancelled lest you miss work the next day.  It’s just more complicated.

I want my car to be complicated.  I like buttons and features.  But I want Christmas to be simple.  Give me a Christmas Tree (I know, it really doesn’t have any Christian background to it, but it warms up the room) and some garland, and let the music decorate the season.  Let me hear about Hope and Peace and Joy and Love highlighted by an Advent Wreath and a sermon to match (that one’s dicey, I know).  And let me hear the words of John 3:16 because really, that’s all it’s about.  Christmas really isn’t complicated (or need be).  It simply is a joyous celebration that indeed God did love the world enough to come and visit us, coming in the form of a baby to grow into the Messiah and Savior for everyone who would accept Him.

That’s what the joy is about.

Humming Joy to the World,

Craig

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  John 3:16