Christmas 2023. it's upon us, isn't it? and with all the world's chaos and hate and pain i very much struggle to reconcile this with our relative peace and comfort and immense privilege here. here, where i'm shopping and planning and wrapping. here, where i create sweet treasures and traditions and good holiday feelings in this small little bubble that is our life. it's this paradox that we are obligated to face, and that i cannot ignore. my son rides Christmas trains and cruises down ziplines after a festive pony ride, while children across the world are released from the darkest captivity, only to learn that one or both of their parents have been murdered. the stark contrast of mothers burying their dear innocent children caught in the horrors of war, while i'm crossing off items on my kid's Christmas wish lists. while we wrestle with high grocery costs during an already expensive season and millions of others can only hope for long-awaited humanitarian aid trucks to cross the border and deliver the very basics they need to even survive.
i could go on and on with the unfathomable comparisons, couldn't i?
yes the season of Christmas does and will still hold much joy for me this year, i imagine~ as it should. for i have clung to the Greatest Gift ever given, and i'm grateful for all that means in my day-to-day journey of life. still, i'll wrestle through the uncomfortable heaviness that lingers in knowing that so many have had their worlds upended and shattered into millions of pieces. that so many, if fortunate enough to survive, face a lifetime of trauma and loss to work through. it isn't right, it isn't ok. it isn't yet how it will one day be...
until then, in this desperate world that keeps right on spinning, i hope and pray God's love and comfort and peace pierces through the darkness of their reality to carry them and hold them extra close, this Christmas and way beyond. that it rests on them like a warm blanket on a bitter cold night.
Emmanuel, God with us...Matthew 1:23
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