Clark Griswold had a noble goal—to provide the perfect Christmas for his family. But, what ensues is a hot mess that shows all the faults in Clark and the imperfection of every person in the family. We can laugh at it because it’s someone else, yet the truth is that we also long for a sort of perfection and many of us get deeply stuck in the traps of performance and appearances.

Since Adam and Eve messed everything up in the Garden of Eden, two things are true. We long for things to be perfect, whole, and right, and at the same time, no person or situation is ever perfect. The Bible uses the term “righteousness” to refer to things being right and perfect. It is a good thing to long for righteousness. Yet, we are unrighteous people living in a broken world. Furthermore, our desire for perfection in life and things is often driven by pride or guilt and shame as we seek to make our own identity known or strive to make up for past failures. These truths are on display in the Griswold house and they are incredibly evident in the manger scene—with one exception. Laying in the manger is the One whom Jeremiah calls “the divine righteous branch from David” who is named “The LORD is our righteousness.” The glorious meaning revealed in this name for Jesus is the remedy for our pursuit of perfection, and brings a promise that deals with our failures in the past, our longings for things to be right now and the declaration that all will be made totally right in the future.