Hear the Angels Sing!

Hear the Angels Sing!

            So Thanksgiving is officially over and the preparations for Christmas can proceed at full steam.  Yes, I know there have been Christmas decorations out since September.  Some of the stores have been doing Christmas promotions, even playing Christmas carols, but now Christmas officially begins.

            But there are many who are not looking forward to Christmas this year.  There are many of us in the church who are saying, “This is the first Christmas without (fill in the blank).”  This is my first Christmas without my mother.

           

            Others are so limited in finances that Christmas will not be the same.  Others are facing serious illnesses.  For some, there are fractured relations, not knowing if those relationships can be restored, knowing some cannot.

            So do we dwell on our losses, on our needs, on our heartaches?  Do we refuse to decorate, to sing, to celebrate?  Or do we choose to welcome the Savior who came to set us free—free from our sin, our fear, our grief?

            As you listen to the carols this year, listen to the words.  Listen to the fourth verse of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear.”

            “And ye, beneath life’s crushing load,

            Whose forms are bending low,

            Who toil along the climbing way

            With painful steps and slow,

            Look now! For glad and golden hours

            Come swiftly on the wing.

            O rest beside the weary road,

            And hear the angels sing!”

                                                Edmund H. Sears

            Life does go on.  I have my first grandbaby, Mikaela Jocelyn, to remind me that it does.  I will listen to the angels’ song.  I may not do all of what I usually do, but I will still celebrate the birth of the Christ Child who came to save the world . . . and me.

                                                                        ~~Faith Lamb