Today was hard. As I attempt to connect my family, all 5 of us, currently in 4 different states, I realize just how hard some days are. I’m planning Christmas dinner, knowing that if I don’t plan it now, I’ll forget, and won’t have time 2 days before Christmas when I finally get home to make it all come together. I talk to my mother and hear the frustration in her voice as she struggles for words, and the knowledge in her voice that what was her job is something she can no longer do. I hear the stress in my father’s voice as he tries to hold pieces together thousands of miles away. I hear my sister in the background, sick with a cold, and dealing with a job that ends in a week, her future unknown. And here I sit, juggling the balls to make this Christmas season something to celebrate for my students, hoping that somehow they will grasp the true meaning in the middle of the madness.
Some days, it all feels like too much. Some days, I feel as though I’m failing my family. Some days I want it all to go away, and life to be easy. But easy is not here. Jesus’ birth, which which we celebrate this season, was not easy. His young mother gave birth in a stable. Not in a hospital, not with a midwife, but in a stable. And his life does not get easier as it continues. From the beginning, someone is out to kill him. His life is full of people who doubt him, full of people who have no need for him, and full of people who want to kill him.
My life, as tough as I might think it is some days, is nothing like that. I am surrounded by people who love me and pray for me. I’m surrounded by community. My family, in all their different locations, is all surrounded by people who support us, help us, pray for us and love us. No one is out to kill us. We have the hope, peace, joy and love of Christ. We have so much more than so many around the world. And in less than a week, we will all be together again, celebrating the birth of a Savior, who gives us life. May God grant you the hope of Him this season, surrounding you with His peace, filling you with His joy, and enveloping you in His love.
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