Merry Christmas 2021: The Hope of Christmas (my thoughts)

Merry Christmas 2021 to all my lovely blog readers (many of whom are also dear friends)! I love Christmas. I love everything about it (even the shopping, since I do that online lol), but I especially love our family traditions. I am most happy when things stay the same – we can add new people & new traditions & new treats … as long as we don’t lose the familiar ones.

This is, at you might imagine, a different and difficult Christmas for my family this year with the death of my father just two weeks ago. It’s a different and difficult Christmas for so many of my friends, too, who have also lost fathers or mothers or children or siblings or spouses this year. I was thinking about that yesterday, struggling with missing my dad so much it hurts. But a quiet whisper in my heart reminded me that last Christmas was different & difficult too – which then prompted me to begin exploring the emotions of Christmas 2020 in relation to this year’s emotions.

Now … I don’t often get ‘preachy’ here in this platform, because that’s not the purpose of a book review blog. If you’re holding your breath after that sentence, you can exhale – I don’t plan to get preachy now either 😉 But if you would pardon me a few moments this year to share what God placed on my heart this Christmas Eve…

Last year was one of the very first Christmases in my recent memory where almost nothing about the actual holiday was traditional for us. We didn’t celebrate with any family because my dad was in the hospital due to a lengthy clinical trial process and we all had to stay quarantined to protect him when he came home. I missed my parents so much in that six week period that my heart ached. Yet, an inkling of joy lingered on the fringes of my sorrow because I knew my dad’s hospital stay was temporary and we could celebrate together in a matter of weeks.

Y’all.

I didn’t hear an audible voice yesterday, but I distinctly felt Jesus say, “The reason for your joy this year is the same.”

And you know what? IT IS. I miss my dad so much that I can’t even put those emotions into words – this kind of grief, this loss of someone so very dear to me, is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. BUT… I can still find joy in my Christmas celebrations, even in trying to navigate this revised ‘life as we know it’. And that reason for my joy-on-the-fringes between this year and last is unchanged.

How?

Because I know that, even though it feels like forever, our goodbye is only temporary… that one day soon (relatively speaking) we will be together again, celebrating our Savior, celebrating that there is no more death, no more sickness, no more grief, no. more. goodbyes. Last year, I was counting down the days until he would be home and released from restrictions and I could hug his neck. This year and onward, I am looking ahead to the Hope of Christmas, to the Reason that death no longer has the final word, to the day I can once again be enveloped in one of my dad’s perfect hugs.

Am I still grieving? Oh yes. Will I cry in the midst of our celebrations? There’s a solid chance. In fact, I’m typing much of this post through tears, too. Can sorrow and joy coexist? Yes! Because Christmas changes everything!! The moment Jesus was born in that long-ago stable, death lost its power for all of us who accept the gift of His death & resurrection.

One of my favorite Christmas albums is Josh Wilson’s NOEL, and if you are feeling hopeless this Christmas season, for whatever reason, I encourage you to listen to it. His song “Jesus is Alive” is particularly close to my heart this year. I hope these words minister to your wounded heart like they have mine…

Oh such Amazing Grace
A divine conspiracy
This Savior in a manger changes everything
That’s why we sing

Noel, Noel, Jesus is alive
Emmanuel, hope is here tonight
So go, and tell, the world that death has died
‘Cause Jesus is alive, yeah Jesus is alive

Sin you have no sting
Hell you have no power (Jesus is alive)
Curse you are no more
This is your final hour (Jesus is alive)

Because the son of God
Has not left us alone (Jesus is alive)
He’ll live and die and rise again
And then he’ll bring us home (Jesus is alive)

The old will pass away
And we will become new (Jesus is alive)
This baby boy is making all sad things untrue

Thanks for letting me share my heart today. I hope you know the Hope of Christmas, that you know the joy of looking forward to the day when Jesus will finish making all sad things untrue. I also encourage you to check out this post from my friend Amanda who shared her heart so beautifully on these lyrics below from a hymn I’d never heard until yesterday: