A Christmas Opportunity
This can be a very difficult time of year for many. Perhaps its SAD, seasonal affective disorder, where the shorter days and darker days really pull you down. Perhaps it is the very first Christmas season after having lost someone close, a husband of 66 years, a grandparent, a friend… Perhaps it is all the hustle and bustle that steals away from the preciousness and potentially special time this represents.
I have to be honest, for a while there, I was turning off the radio anytime a Christmas song came on. I was somewhat repelled by being bombarded by marketing for shopping. I just wasn’t “feeling it”. And within the past few days I learned of 4 separate suicide attempts. The pain is real. The loneliness is real. The despair is real.
However, the sun keeps rising every morning in truly spectacular splendor. The moon continues to hang in the sky, bold and luminous and strong. The trees continue to stand upright reaching, stretching for the light. EACH DAY IS A NEW OPPORTUNITY!! New opportunities to reach out to someone we haven’t in a while. To restart a conversation with someone we need to, even if they are not here physically. New opportunities to be kinder to ourselves, to others. New opportunities to say I love you, I forgive you, forgive me, I thank God for you; I need help; I am ready to be whole, I am ready to make a change, I’m sorry.
Perhaps NOW is the time to SEE the opportunity, GRASP the opportunity, USE this opportunity.
Remember the opportunity that came to an unwed, teenage girl and her faithful fiance; Remember how they surrendered to that opportunity despite its difficulty and messiness, and the beautiful savior, Jesus, who was born from that opportunity!
What will be born from your opportunity?
Merry Christmas!
I am sure this post will be of much comfort to many, especially those who are grieving or ill at this time. Those of us who are blessed to have loved ones with us to show us love and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas, should reach out to those who are sad, lonely etc.
Greetings! I remember the days of single parenting my 2 wonderful children (now mature adults) as a divorcee. I grew to shun Christmas and its focus on money and retail as the primary source for happiness and celebration on this day to celebrate the rebirth of the Christ-Spirit. I felt less than capable as a loving mother/parent when I couldn’t do all simultaneously, provide for our survival, life enrichment, and celebrate the holidays through purchases of those things we desired for self and others. Something had to go, to decline, and I was the sacrificial lamb. Grateful to have family, food, fun, laughter, friends visiting along with our family tradition of Jam Cake in my parents home; yet the exchange of gifts and the expectation raised conflicted emotions, tears of sadness, and anxiety during and after the holidays. I finally had to give up the idea of celebrating for monetary reasons, and that caused sadness for my children and me. This conflict caused me to step back, to become the observer, and to consider the cause, the root cause.