Psalm 37:3:
“So I commend the enjoyment of life, because there is nothing better for a person under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany them in their toil all the days of the life God has given them under the sun.”
I’m here at the Country Club Plaza in Kansas City, Missouri. From childhood, I remember coming here or watching on TV every year around Christmas time as the plaza lights were lit for the season. Every evening until 3 AM the next morning or so the Plaza lights, strings of lights adorning every historic building in this outdoor mall area, come ablaze with beautiful holiday colors, emoting holiday spirit, and Kansas City cheerfulness from bygone times.
What started with a single strand of Christmas lights strung over a store entrance in 1925 has become a living legend as the most spectacular holiday lighting display in the nation. The first Plaza Lighting Ceremony took place in 1930. The sentiment is reminiscent of the time setting of them movie “A Christmas Story.”
What baffles me a bit with no small amount of sadness is the way the throngs of people look tonight. I am here, watching from the corner as the lights come on for the evening. Just 20 years ago there would be a visible reaction of awe and exclamations from the people. But tonight even the parents barely notice the lights, refusing to look up from their phones while walking along the walks, in and out of the shops, weaving in and out of cars and horse-drawn carriages, moving along colorfully lit streets with their children.
It is yet another reminder of how detached people have become from the beauty that is physical world. We lament about the shortened attention span of people, the lack of drive for many to learn and grow, and the increased emersion in the false and digital world. We wonder at dropping rates of empathy and growing social withdrawal among our young. And we can see, in this example here, the lack of enjoyment on the part of many in the beauty (and for safety’s sake, even the awareness) of our physical surroundings.
There is an interesting, albeit alarming, growth we are seeing in people who, after losing a relationship, will withdraw often to the point of suicide. How is this related to what I witness tonight? People have a misguided view of first love. If we want strong relationships and resilient people we must teach others, and learn ourselves, to love life first! We live in an amazing world tailor made for us by God! And even after we corrupted that, we were given everlasting life and salvation through His Son Jesus Christ!
The answer to a happy and fulfilling life is to love life first! Make THAT your first love. The gift of God, your true loving parent and the one who loved you first! With that perspective, we can withstand any hardship. And we can put things into perspectice and enjoy what is truly important: not what is on our devices, but what is all around us in this beautiful world.
