Thoughts on Christmas
I know that many of my friends struggle to cope at Christmas time. While others are out celebrating and making merry, you try to keep your mind from dwelling on the dark thoughts that haunt you.
My grandfather died on Christmas day when I was 10 years old. I remember the following year, bringing the Christmas tree to gramma’s house with my dad and hearing her say there would be no tree this year. The presence of a tree would only bring back painful memories. Memories that were too hard for her to bear.
I know it can be hard during the holidays for some of you and I want you to know that I understand. I can’t remove your pain. But I hope and pray for your peace.
I’ve found one thing that brings me joy this time of year. It’s the courtesy and kindness people show around Christmas.
Yesterday, a stranger gave me a coupon for a cup of coffee at Circle K. People who would normally ignore me were greeting me as I walked through the hospital. Everywhere I went people seemed to be a little happier and a little more giving. It may sound cliché, but there really does seem to be a spirit of generosity and love that grips some people this time of year. Perhaps there really is a “Christmas spirit.”
It’s easy to see the commercialism that surrounds Christmas; the greed of corporations, the stress of meeting people’s expectations, the discomfort of family gatherings, and other negative things the holiday brings. If you want, you can make those things your focus and believe they’re the only thing happening at Christmas time. I’ve chosen to look past them.
I’ve decided to look instead for the lovely things. The smiles, the giving, the warm hugs and pats on the back, and the thank you’s from people out doing their holiday errands. When I look for the good in others, something inside of me wants to be one of those people, if only for a day.
Kat Kerr was taken into heaven once and transported to a snow-covered village where the trees were adorned with living ornaments that sang praises to God. In the village, children played and sang. She asked her escort the name of the place. She was told it was called “Christmas Town.”
She asked why God would create such a place. She was told that the town was a memorial to the one time a year when people showed the kind of love to each other that God wanted them to show all year round. His heart was so warmed by the way we act this time of year, He decided to make a place in heaven to keep the Christmas spirit alive for all eternity.
Here’s to another Christmas season. I hope yours is filled with peace, love, and hope. Thank you for allowing me to be your friend.
~ Praying Medic
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Thank you PM. I agree that there is a spirit of love and kindness during the Christmas season. Oh, how I pray it would last all through the year. But we can all turn to God and ask Him to continue to help us love people especially those who are broken and hurting.
A few years ago, before the economic downturn with the housing market, stock market, employment,… etc., the Holy Spirit told me that there was a spirit of Generosity coming to the church. I knew this to mean that those who truly carried the Light and Love of Jesus in their hearts were going to express generosity that would stir that up in the world again. It has been with renewed hope that I have seen this happening in so many ways, in so many expressions across the globe… paying it forward, responses to tragic weather disaster’s, acts of kindness, charities being once again a viable source for the needy, so many expressions of generosity. I believe the Bride of Christ is becoming that expression of giving from the Father’s heart and it is permeating the atmosphere in response the deep darkness that seems to overwhelm us at times. Giving Hope and love is God’s desire for all mankind. Blessings Praying Medic as you continue to express His Heart to others. Thank you for giving words to extend that to so many.
And you mine. Lord bless you!
Thank you for your message today, which has encouraged me. There are so many things about Christmas that I find difficult, but I’m learning to stay focused on the positives, too. I’ve only recently discovered you, Praying Medic – I’m loving your posts, and will order your book soon. I go out with a few other Christians, praying for people on the streets, and we do see some people healed and lives changed. There is so much incredible need out there, that sometimes it can feel like a drop in the ocean, and yet I know that we are light bearers and can make such a difference through Christ in us, the hope of glory. I agree with the two previous comments – let’s pray for that spirit of love and kindness not just at Christmas, but all year round, and let’s thank God for that spirit of generosity which is already at work in the Church and in the world.
Shared this post with my FB friends with a personal salvation message to them. Thank you PM for your consistency in lifting us higher in our walk with Jesus.
It was tough today. I was with family that I’ve only known for really about ten years and their expression of love for each other is without earthly compare (obviously not on par with heaven, but probably as good as it gets on earth). They are thankful for every gift they receive, give every gift with joy (even “lunchables” and Reese’s peanut butter cups)-
But the gift that got me was a video of family history. I sat and watched others cry over the beauty while I cried over what I don’t (and foreseeably won’t) have.
Calling people “family” and making them part if your family aren’t the same thing.
Christmas in our culture is truly a family time of year and family has as many level as there are levels of love, perhaps more. Love truly and remember the wounds of your friends.
I loved your perspective. For years I had a strong dislike for this time of year. For the commercialism, the expectations that I could fill, for the accusations inside my head that told me I wasnt enough, didnt do enough, that family was too disfunctional to really have the warm fuzzy feelings pictured everywhere I looked. And it wasnt just Christmas, this dread like a dull ache spilled into Mothers day, birthdays, funerals, gatherings of any sort sent me into an internal evaluation of all that Im not. Ive always struggled with my weight, my background, the way I do things. So the vulnerability that these occasions demanded got too close to the fortress protecting my heart. Then one day, actually it had been a series of events over a few years, but the culmination came as I was trying to explain to a friend why I felt so…..afraid of getting close to people. There it was, out in the open, that word, Fear. I had never looked at full on before. It was always a mystery why I was so uncomfortable. I had always chalked it up to my introverted personality. Not many people would know this about me, I was very good at being able to only let people in just so far and then the 6 inch plexiglas would go up and no one ever saw the scared little kid inside. When the realization came that fear was what I was dealing with, it was relatively easy to tell it that I didnt want to hang out with it anymore. I had believed the lie that came along with fear, it was called shame. It said that I wasnt enough and that I needed to try and look better, do better, be better. But I still couldnt come out of hiding. Until I saw it. Shame and fear had to go. No more partnering, or agreeing with them.
This year during all of our normal festivities I was free! It was so noticeable. I could be happy, joyfull, loving…..not afraid,
Dreamless dreamer, you describe beautifully the pain of being included in a loving, Godly family, yet knowing there are aspects of it you have never experienced.
Anonymous, thank you for sharing about fear and shame, and that dull ache at Christmas and other gatherings, and I’m so glad you have stepped into new freedom.
I can identify with both of you, and thank you for your honesty.
This year, I sent out an e-mail to a few friends, describing my own mixed feelings about Christmas, and my empathy for those who are hurting, or who don’t know Jesus. I was honest, but not cynical, and I finished with a heartfelt prayer for those I sent it to. It felt a very risky thing to do, but was also liberating, writing it down.
For me, it is disappointment that I need to send packing. The antidote to fear is God’s perfect love. The antidote to disappointment is God’s promises and His joy in us, making us complete. (Proverbs 13: Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life).
Gratitude and worship are powerful. I’m learning! There is such joy in looking at Jesus. What a hope we have to share in this world!
Thank you!
Love and Hugs. PM, to you and yours.