I have to admit, this is a hard Christmas. Dad always loved having the family around for Christmas Eve, which was when we opened presents. He would sit there and watch everyone open their presents. His hearing was gone for the most part in later years, so I've really no idea how much he heard, but he saw the faces and he loved having his family around for this time of year. You could see it in his face.
This will be our first Christmas without that face in our midst.
My mother, on the other hand, suffered through Christmas. Christmas was a hard time of year for her and her depression worsened during the holiday season. I remember times where she holed herself up in her room while we were in the living room opening presents. As I've gotten older, I am coming to understand some of that sadness. Christmas is hard when you have experienced loss.
Life and death was the focus on today's devotional. I'm experiencing it firsthand this season, with my father's passing. I miss him. But I'm reminded to think beyond this present loss to that future gain.
I shared this song before. I'm sharing it again today, because I miss my daddy. But I don't want to dwell on the loss. the devotional helps with that.
O, don’t let all the sweet things of this season become substitutes of the final great, all-satisfying Sweetness. Let every loss and every delight send your hearts a-homing after heaven.
Christmas. What is it but this: I came that they might have life. Marion Newstrum, Ruth Piper, and you and I— that we might have Life, now and forever.
Make your Now the richer and deeper this Christmas by drinking at the fountain of Forever. It is so near.
E'en so Lord, come quickly.
All Things Elda 