Going through my Christmas card list was sobering this month. Maybe it is my age, but for the first time I had a handful of deletions and edits due not to relocation, but to divorce and/or deaths. 2010 was hard on people I care about.
Dear friends will be sitting around a Christmas table with the somber reminder that people they loved dearly are missing. Friends of mine will be without their spouses and/or children as a result of infidelities and broken marriage vows. Children I care about will be shuttled from place to place 'making rounds' through their fractured families.
This weekend my family had a chance to see our 13 year old friend who is now in another group home in a city two hours from here. This time last year he was with his Mom and Dad and six siblings. This year they are all scattered across the state in various places. Only two members of their family of eight will be together this Christmas.
This week Nana has been having a rough go of things with her health. We are all concerned about her. I am reminded of the frailty of life. Life here is short. It is why there MUST be more to life than this.
Cabell & I had a moving conversation today about how ALL OF US carry worry, fear, pain and/or loss in this season. It is the nature of this fallen world. No matter how well-decorated our homes are for the holiday or how full of love and laughter, we have hearts that carry the weight of the pain and sin in this world.
Our modern celebrations of Jesus' birthday can serve as a tiny glimpse of our eternal home in Heaven.
Christmas is full of anticipation, glitter, joy, music, feasting, relationships, service to others and fun. It is common to hear people bemoan their regret that people cannot treat each other like they do at Christmas all year round. Yet, one day, as we greet our God in Heaven we will spend eternity with a peace, joy and experience of love that cannot be matched by our Earthly celebrations of Christmas. What a thought!
This year as I approach my Christmas tree with gifts stacked up beneath, I pray I will see the tree that stood atop Calvary, where my Jesus breathed His last. I pray as each gift is unwrapped it will bring to mind the gifts we have in a relationship with Him: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control. There's not a person on my Christmas list who wouldn't appreciate more of those!
3 comments:
Wow your posts always give me something to think about. Thank you for sharing, for my family 2010 was not without both loss and celebrations. Friends whose parents divorced after 32 years of marriage and the one of the rocks of our family lost her battle to cancer, my brother who had been without a job for a year got a fabulous new job and new life born into our family and God blessing my life with the man I will marry in 2011. I pray too that as my family gathers we remember the true meaning of Christmas that our Saviour was born. Merry Christmas and thank you for this post!
Blessings,
Ashley
Thank you for your beautiful words. My grandfather lost his battle with pancreatic cancer yesterday. I am so thankful for a thoughtful, caring God that brought these words to me this morning. Just thought you needed to know how God is speaking through your blog. Have a wonderful and blessed Christmas weekend!
I love this post! Oddly, I find myself on the flip side of where you are. Several dear friends are experiencing the joy of welcoming new babies into their families in recent weeks. Their joy (as opposed to the pain of your loved ones) has served as my reminder to stop and pay attention amid the busy-ness of the season.
Death and life...the mysteries of both are certainly heightened this time of year...
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