A 13 year old’s Christmas Morning Checklist: Open stockings. Eat cinnamon rolls. Call paramedics.
Wait, what?! Paramedics aren’t on the list. There’s supposed to be church and a big meal and playing with presents, right?
Well, that long-ago Christmas morning in our house there were paramedics. Then a call from the hospital. And funeral arrangements to make for our stepfather who had died of a massive heart attack.
Everyone wants a Hallmark Channel ramp up to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We are looking forward to family, friends, food, and festivities. We want to revel in the tenderness of the Nativity, the hope of the shepherds, and the glory of the angelic choir.
But in these waning days of Advent we have learned of several households who are just hanging on and trying to get by instead of celebrating. There’s a terminal diagnosis, a broken hip, a broken ankle, back surgery, a lost job, and a mental illness relapse – just to name a few of the crises facing families.
If you, your family, or friends are in the midst of a crisis this holiday season, I commend to you this familiar passage that often brings some comfort in stressful times: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16)
We know the babe in the manger grows up to experience and redeem our frailty and suffering. Through his mission, passion, and resurrection Jesus’ life proclaims that despite our immediate circumstances, God’s love for us is constant and triumphant in the end.
If you are having a Hallmark Channel Christmas, I am happy for you! I trust that you are also attentive to those for whom your kind word or generous gesture may be a sign of God’s love to encourage them in their less than ideal Christmas.
