When Your Christmas Isn't Merry

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire,
 Jack Frost nipping at your nose…

Silver bells. Silver bells. 

It’s Christmastime in the city…

Silent Night. Holy Night. 
All is calm. All is bright.

Joy to the World the Lord is come!

Each of these Christmas songs reflects a sense of cozy, of festive, of peacefulness, of  joy.  The holidays are times of family and friends, cheerfulness and comfort, happiness and delight.
But what if that isn’t how YOUR Christmas is?

What if this Christmas, you are anything but merry?!

For many, many individuals December 24 and 25 will be days to endure and fight through, to be alone or be lonely amid a crowd, to wake up to the same sinister darkness of soul that was present on December 23…and which they’ll face again on December 26.

What if this Christmas just isn’t merry?

Perhaps it’s the...

• loss of a spouse
• the ongoing fight of a grave illness
• the grief of a broken relationship
• the mental illness of a loved one
• the sadness of an empty womb
• the break-up of a family
• the inner pain and struggle of one’s own soul
• the grief of losing a child/grandchild/parent
• the reality of sitting around the Christmas table with an empty chair.

Loving  often includes deep sorrow, whether through loss, failed expectations, hurtful interactions, sometimes the helplessness of watching another make choices that will only hurt him/herself…but being unable to do anything to prevent it.


What hope and help is there for one (for you, for me – to whatever degree) if this is OUR experience at Christmas?

May I offer hope without the Currier and Ives (or holiday muzak) façade?

1. Our hope is not in this world, with all its brokenness. A better world awaits where all wrongs are made right and all heartaches are swallowed up in God’s love and goodness.

2. Our Savior came NOT to bring his physical kingdom to this earth, but to rescue us from its brokenness (and our own) so that we could enter in his eternal kingdom…Heaven and the joy of His presence for eternity.

3. Christ knows our present suffering, cares with infinite tenderness and love, and shares our burden/sorrow/despair and alone-ness (Isa 41:10-13).  He experienced it, as well (John 1:11)

4. Our joy can be fixed upward and outward, and is not defined by what is inside us nor the circumstances around us.  Christ. Is. Born.   This God-became-man rescue surpasses our earthly trials and personal darknesses.  Optimism in God can find expression even amid falling tears.

5. God wins. Jesus will reign on this earth. Satan will be bound.  This triumphant truth means the un-merry Christmases over a lifetime do not reflect the final outcome.  For those who are children of God, we will reign, worship, rest and rejoice for an eternity of Christmases. 

For those who may read and relate to this in your own life this December 25, may I offer my own hand to reach out and clasp yours…
May we then, together, look upward and imagine our Savior…not his tiny body in a manger, but his suffering body, his bleeding hands and feet on a Cross.
And may we silently thank Him, with a gratitude borne of faith, for this great love…and our future hope.

Merry Christmas, friend.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore,

 for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said,
 “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage,

and I will be his God and he will be my son.

Revelation 21:1-7