“PAPAHOOD”

 Another Christmas almost over and it was a good one, Gracie was more interested in what was on the television than any of the presents, not even the wrapping paper caught her attention. Everyone else was delighted with their presents, we are all so fortunate. Gracie is showing off her Christmas dress in the pictures with Alan and papa.

Right now, as I type this, I am half watching ‘Home Alone’ and suffering from an overdose of food, friends, family and films.

I am also thinking of several people who I know for whom Christmas Isn’t particularly Welcome this year, one friend having buried her dad only last week and am reminded of something I read by a lady called Susan Lenzkes, she writes,

“One brave woman I know, in spite of her staggering and relentless collection of heavy losses, went out and purchased lovely Christmas cards. She stamped and addressed them, wrote personal notes in each one, and then found she couldn’t bring herself to mail them. So she tossed them all in the garbage and watched the trash collector take them away.

After a painful year it’s hard to send messages of peace and goodwill to all. Christmas isn’t welcome when it glibly promises cozy togetherness and prepackaged joy that it can’t deliver. Parties and bright lights cannot dismiss the darkness of crisis, trauma, pain, and death. And yet God sent the Light of the World into such darkness. All around there was oppression, sickness, and suffering.

Christmas wasn’t welcomed then either. It was shunted into the dark corner of a dank stable. Yet the animals, along with the weary and wondering new mother and her husband, found they were not blinded by the light of His glory. He left His brilliance behind and came with a soft cry into the night. Only a lantern lit the face of God.

Had it not been for the angels and the star, no one would have guessed that God had come to earth . . . except for those who sensed the love glowing in that dark place. Christmas came amid pain and poverty, loss and loneliness.

When we can’t say “Merry Christmas,” perhaps we can whisper, “Welcome, Light of the World. Never has the light of Your presence been more needed. Shine softly in my darkness.””

“When Christmas Isn’t Welcome”
from “When Life Takes What Matters” by Susan Lenzkes