Celebrating

Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus and all his coming means.  I wish my advent season had been a more reflective time this year, but as I return home for a few days this Christmas season, I think back on all that’s been celebrated this year in my life.

A college graduation

The wedding of my only sister

                                                                                        A new home in DC

New opportunities that keep appearing in unimaginable ways...

In all of the celebrating, there was a promise of love, or sometimes for peace.  People I loved the most surrounded me in these moments of celebration.  We gave thanks to one another that we had yet again witnessed the incredible love of our family and friends.  I stand in awe of that love every time I come home now.  In the moments I searched for clarity and peace, especially when I first got to DC, there was a incredible ever present love I neglected.  That was the love Jesus showed me with every new opportunity, and through every new relationship.  You see in the midst of some of our hardest moments, its easy to neglect the love that should be closest to our hearts.  That same love Jesus shows us unconditionally can be easily forgotten.  With the arrival of Christmas, less people think about what it really meant that a faithful and loving savior was being celebrated for another year, and filled their agenda with Christmas parties and lists of who to buy gifts for. 

This Christmas, may we all be grateful for the love of family and friends whom we can celebrate life's gifts with.  May we also take hold of the one celebration that brings us together, the birth of Jesus.  May the love of Jesus comfort those in doubt and fear, assuring them that a loving God is ever present in their life. May that loving God bring peace to those whose year was one of unexplained loss, and may a new year bring reassurance and hope.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all,

H