The Christmas Journey Chapter

My last post was before Christmas, I had just finished making a manger scene with Kai ~~ and Kai told me that Mary had butterflies in her tummy because she was SO EXCITED to have a baby,  and Joseph was smiling and winking about this baby that was soon to be born.   And we had just hung eight stockings that Santa would soon fill. That is all Kai knows about Christmastime ~~ butterflies, smiles, joy-filled anticipation.  I would like to keep it that way forever.

This Christmas season we did NOT anticipate or expect a hospital stay with our son.  We did not anticipate illness or pain or tears or MRI’s or CT scans or EEG’s or EKG’s.  We didn’t.  We thought the Christmas-Journey-Chapter would be ALL butterflies and winks.

I wish for each of us…it was all butterflies and winks and smiles and sunshine.  Yet this Incredible Journey of Life can hold painful twists and turns that no one expects or anticipates, no matter the season.   And....I know we were not the only ones who had an unexpected and painful detour this Christmas season. I know ….because we have dear friends in the midst of a family crisis,  another facing serious health issues, another grieving the painful loss of a loved one,  another aching with monthly disappointment of unanswered prayers.   I know because there are families in Connecticut who ache with empty arms this Christmas. I know because while in the hospital with our son --- all the rooms were filled with other families, wishing they too were someplace else.  Instead of butterflies and winks and smiles,  many of us have felt,  labor, and pain and tears.

That is how life's journey on earth is sometimes.  And each one of has been  “there .”  We have.

But….

The story of CHRISTmas is… in the labor, in the tears, in the pain, in the darkness,  He comes.   God comes. To be with us.  To comfort us.  To heal us.  To BE with us.   And we are not alone.

And that is the Gift of Christmas.