Blue Christmas
A little over a week ago, the Ward family was talking about Christmas cards. You know, the kind of Christmas card with the picture on the front. And as we talked, the comment was made that “we don’t have any good pictures of all of us with Silas to put on our card”. A lot of our pictures from the middle of the year have Silas with a tube in his nose. All of our pictures from this half of the year show his “stone face” look since he has lost much of his facial expressions. It’s true, we don’t have many “good” pictures from this year. And that got me thinking…
Too many times I define Christmas as a “winter wonderland” or a time of joy and fun. But for many, it’s a hard time. It’s the first Christmas without someone. It’s another Christmas without someone. It’s a time to be reminded of broken relationships or what we don’t have. For many, all they get for Christmas is blue and they feel as if they are left out in the cold looking through windows at the rest of the happy, blissful world. But as I’ve written before, even if it’s hard there is always hope.
This Christmas I’ve been humming this song by Over the Rhine because it encapsulates my feelings of pain and hope. It’s called “Darl’in Christmas is Coming” and I’d like to share it with you.
So it’s been a long year
Every new day brings one more tear
Till there’s nothing left to cryMy, my how time flies
Like little children hiding their eyes
We’ll make it disappear
Let’s start a brand new yearDarlin’ Christmas is coming
Salvation army bells are ringing
Darlin’ Christmas is coming
Do you believe in angels singing
Darlin’ the snow is falling
Falling like forgiveness from the skyIf I could have anything
What would I want this new year to bring
Well, I’d want you here with meTear these thorns from my heart
Help the healing to start
Let’s set this old world free
Let’s start with you and me
So if you’re having a “blue Christmas”, I hope you are able to see the healing start in his love and forgiveness that does fall from the sky like fresh, white snow. And from the Ward family to yours…Merry Christmas.
Kirk Ward 11:04 AM on December 20, 2011 Permalink |
this reminds me of an NPR thing I heard last year about the unique expectation at Christmas to achieve perfection – the perfect gift, the perfect dinner, the perfect tree, the perfect lights. Of course the expectation of perfection is always a let down. Where did it come from? There’s certainly nothing perfect about the Nativity – except the baby.