You Are Not Alone

In all of its glory and all of its pageantry and all of its goodness and as wonderful as it can be....

For many, Christmas is a painful reminder. It arrives with unbearable grief.

It can knock the breath out of us for a number of reasons.

And our minds can know with all knowing that He is the reason for the season and it is to be celebrated.

But our hearts can be in another place.

Our hearts can bring up the end of the race some days, weeks and months later.

And sometimes our hearts just can't compete at all .

For many, Christmas is something that we have to just "get through" and cannot wait for it to be over.

It isn't because we do not love others or because we do not understand the reason we celebrate at all...

It is just for the simple reason that for many, Christmas hurts.

My beautiful friend Granny Smith Green , whom we all know and love so much,  lost her Father last year this very week.  And in all the joy and all the rejoicing of the birth of our Savior and in all head knowledge that this is truly the most wonderful time of the year...

There is sorrow.

A place in our hearts that rings with unbearable grief and a place at the table, empty this year.

A position in a precious family that can never be replaced.

In speaking with her this week, I heard what grace truly sounds like.  Beautiful, unmeasurable, grace.

So many of us are walking through changes this year that are not what we would have scripted for our life.

So many are trying to find a new normal and start over and begin again and for thousands and thousands of beautiful hearts, this will be their very first Christmas alone.

Because as incredible and wonderful as life can be....

Death comes. Sorrow comes. Divorce comes. Separation and heartbreak come. Saying goodbye to babies you never had the chance to raise, comes. Financial despair and job loss comes. Cancer and sickness and illness comes.....

It wasn't in the script or the journal or the plans.....

But it comes.

And for many, this will be a Christmas of trying to feel our way around in the dark, broken places of our heart while at the same time trying to sit up straight in the church pew and hear the gospel about the One who came to mend every broken place.

So many are trying to buy gifts and give and love and sow and bless and do for others and on the inside they can barely stand.

Many are trying to explain to wide eyed children why there will not be very, many gifts under the tree this year. Or worse, anything at all.

Unbearable pain in the midst of such a glorious season.

And the One who is the Author and the Finisher. The Beginning and the End. The Alpha and the Omega.....

He is calling the broken and the mended in every single one of us to reach out to the broken places in someone else this Christmas.

To be His hands and His feet. To be His mouthpiece. To hold the pen to paper and write His words to the heart of another. To be an earthly demonstration of His love to someone else this season, to remind a broken heart that they are not alone this Christmas.

That He is ever mindful of them...

You are not alone sweet reader. 

He is there with you.

In the midst of court hearings and proceedings.  In the midst of that hospital room.

He is there in the intensive care unit.

He is hovering over you in the midst of the separation and divorce.

He knows how difficult it is to begin life as a single parent.....

He is going before you, even now and preparing the way and orchestrating every need on your behalf....

Even this Christmas.

May we each receive the gift that is demonstrating the love of the Father to someone else this year.....

Be still and know that I am God. ~ Psalm 46:10.

A Father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, Is God in His holy habitation.
God sets the solitary in families; He brings out those who are bound into prosperity. ~ Psalm 68: 5-6

Hear me, O Lord, for Your lovingkindness is good; Turn to me according to the multitude of your tender mercies. And do not hide Your face from your servant, For I am in trouble; Hear me speedily.
Draw near to my soul and redeem it; Deliver me because of my enemies. ~ Psalm 69: 16-18

Bless the Lord, O my soul;
And all that is within me, bless His holy name!
Bless the Lord, O my soul,
And forget not all His benefits:
Who forgives all your iniquities,
Who heals all your diseases,
Who redeems your life from destruction,
Who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies,
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. ~ Psalm 103: 1-5