The Holidays and Christmas time can be overwhelmingly difficult for many.  Filled with emotions good and bad, memories and ever increasing expectations, it is a lot to try and process on multiple levels.  Not everyone has the blessings of a loving family or warm home or enough to eat.  Many won’t get a single present, and  never have.  Others have lost dear ones, family members, and even children.  The media is full of hateful things and terrors committed that are heartbreaking and soul wrenching.  Even if there is nothing superficially wrong with your world and you have what you need, these days can feel dark and seem hopeless, and it is easy to get depressed and sad. 

But you are not alone.  Others walk through darkness with you; still others have walked that path before you.  Remember a young, pregnant girl, about to give birth, uncomfortable and in pain, forced to travel by night in hiding, scared and uncertain.  She travels with a companion, a man taking responsibility for a Baby that by all accounts isn’t his, terrified the child will come before there is shelter,  there rejection all around.  No one will let them into their warm home or give warmth and  safety to the pair.  There is no comfort. They are friendless, shunned, and hunted.

This is a first time mother, alone, no idea what is about to happen, or what her body is about to go through.  This is a new father, who, by all accounts, may not even know the woman very well, and probably not all that exposed to what is supposed to happen.  They have no money, no food, no support.

A child is born in a dirty stable, surrounded by the smell of animal urine and harsh damp hay, with nothing but scraps of cloth and the love of a first time mother.  There was probably no clean water.  There was nothing to help the young mother through her pain and her fear and her confusion.

And yet in awful, uncomfortable circumstances, this mother gave birth to the most important baby this world has ever known.  Choirs of angels and foreign kings came to this humble barn to praise the birth, and their sacrifice, their doing the next right thing, offered the world a new chance at life.

I’m A Christian, and I call it God – you may call it the universe, a great mother, Jehova, but I believe there is a force of Love that can bring you through.  It may be dark, it may be cold, it may feel awful and be terribly lonely, but God can turn all to good.   While we are celebrating a wondrous birth, we are also celebrating faith, hope and sacrifice and the sheer trust that amid all the dark terrible things that happen in this world and the losses we suffer, Good will triumph, and there is far more to this world and beyond than we can see or know.   I am sorry for your hurting!  I know it is hard and can be a struggle!   Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, we are all connected and have purpose.  We are all in this together!

I am sending a true wish of Love, Patience, Faith and Joy to each of you, on whatever path you walk, no matter what your beliefs.  I am sending comfort for your dark moments and peace for your troubles.  Hang in there.  Believe just for today that everything is going to be okay, even if you can’t see it yet.  You are loved.  You are not alone.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.