When Life Forgets That it Is Christmas TIme

It is not that I have anything against Christmas at all, I will be gathered with family on Christmas day and enjoying the company, the cheer and the food.  I love to walk the streets at night and see the houses all aglow with the beams of Christmas lights.  I love the festive cheer, the warmth and the celebratory nature of the season.  But I am reminded that although it all may be fine indeed, that sometimes it is not enough.  Sometimes life does not follow our calendar.  Despite what is going on in the world around us, everything is not all happiness and cheer.  Sometimes life forgets that it is Christmas time.
This year the advent season began with my cousin in the hospital with a serious infection that threatened her health and the health of her unborn child.  Thankfully she is at home now and the worst of it seems to be over, but she arrived home just in time for my grandmother to be admitted with heart trouble.  There is the possibility that she may be in the hospital for Christmas.
My friend has had two friends pass away over the last two weeks, and so his Christmas season has been marked with saying goodbye to friends.
And perhaps the hardest story of all so far came when we heard a friend of ours and a member of my congregation lost his wife this week.  So he, along with his two grown children and his 16 year old daughter, will be grieving this holiday.
Sometimes Christmas cannot be about family and feasts when our situation has us separated from the ones we love.  Sometimes Christmas cannot be gathering with friends.  Sometimes Christmas means saying goodbye.  It is then that we need our Christmas to be a bit more, a bit more concrete than the abstract "Christmas Feeling," and a bit more than just the "happiest season of all."  Sometimes Christmas needs to be...well...Christ mas.  When Christmas is about the Christmas story then, despite the circumstances in which we might find ourselves,  we can find hope and reason to celebrate.
When Christmas is the Christmas story we celebrate the child who was Immanuel - God with us, and we can trust that no matter what our circumstance, we are not alone.  God continues to be with us.
When Christmas is the Christmas story we celebrate the coming of the child who was called Jesus - the LORD saves.  And although we may say goodbye to friends and family, if they knew Jesus, we know that they will not perish but have eternal life and we will see them again.
When Christmas is the Christmas story, then we celebrate the birth of Christ, knowing that it was the beginning of a life that saw Jesus go to the cross but then raise again three days later - conquering sin and death.  Although our present Christmas celebrations may still be marred by effects of the fall in a broken world,  Jesus has promised to return again, has promised a new heaven and new earth where God will "wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain..." (Rev. 21:4)
When life forgets that it is Christmas time, and it always does somewhere for someone, there is still hope and joy and celebration to be found when we let our Christmas truly be...Christmas.