In the book, My Grandfather's Blessing, Rachel Remen shares a thought that resonates with me.  She speaks about the 'brokenness' and 'wholeness' in each other and of how important it is to find the wholeness.
When I first read this, I was struck by how easy it is to get stuck at brokenness...at how easy it is to stop looking beyond the broken.
Sure fits now, doesn't it?
Systems are broken.  People are broken.  Lives are broken.  Families are broken.  ENTIRE countries are broken.
It would be so very easy to get stuck at the broken.
Too. Easy.
BUT, I just do NOT want to do that.

Especially, at CHRIST-mas.

I remember the first time I was really struck with how I was leaning into brokenness. I was sitting with two people watching them tear each other to shreds thinking that there was ABSOLUTELY NOTHING but dysfunction here.

I could see nothing but brokenness.

                       Then, in the midst of the cursing and the screaming, one of the them shouted, 

"DAMMIT, I DO LOVE YOU!"

Ooookkaaaaay.
Not exactly Norman Rockwell but a titch of something....a little tiny titch of UNbrokenness?
It hit me right then: What if I  grabbed hold of that tiny bit and built on what was NOT broken....looked for what might bring wholeness?
SO, I said,   "Hey, did you hear that?  She said  "Dammit, I DO love you!"
And, you know what, there was a shift...slight....but it was there.  Oh, it didn't 'fix' it and there was still PLENTY to wade through BUT there was a shift.

Especially in me!

I decided right then and there that I would be intentional about looking NOT at what was broken but at what was WHOLE in the people, the world around me.
It is a shift but one I continue to work at and encourage others to do the same. Wanna' join me?
It is EASY to see what isn't working and EASY to give up on systems and families and cultures and ourselves and EACH OTHER.
It is MUCH harder to look for what IS working and then stay and BUILD on that.

Which meanders me right into Christmas.

2000 years ago, the world was broken but God didn't give up on us.

He handed us WHOLENESS.

                                                                             

                                                                        

In. A. Baby.

What better represents wholeness than a newborn baby?

Every year, we celebrate that baby....we celebrate that wholeness....

...and then we go back to focusing on brokenness again.

I wanna' try this year to do better....to look for wholeness....to work for wholeness....to BE wholeness.

Maybe it's time for me, for us to quit bitchin' and start shoutin' what God shouts on Christmas and EVERYDAY:

"DAMMIT, I DO LOVE YOU"!