And A Light Shone

Over the years, as I have anticipated the season with full abandonment, I have wondered how many people have to endure it rather than enjoy it. But it occurs to me that there may be a hidden blessing in it, somewhere. As there often is.
**Try to imagine what it would be like to give birth in a place that is foreign, cold and dark, alone with a husband who knew nothing about delivering a child, going through the agonizing pain and terror of my first birth. Not everything about that season was perfect.

**

I think about the chapters of The Story, the slaughter of the innocent children demanded by a brutal king, that we skip over every year. So much pain. So much mourning that led up to the moment we now celebrate so fully.

**
This time of year is not easy for many. It is a time that rips at wounds that are trying to heal; opens memories that are placed on a shelf for the better part of a year; makes one long again for things that cannot  be had back. And yet, it challenges me to look hard to find something to celebrate. 
**

Which maybe isn’t a bad thing. It is a difficult thing. At moments, an overwhelming and crushing thing. But I know it is there,
 the reason for joy. 
I know it is there, 
the reason for thankfulness. 
I know it is there, 
the reason for hope.
**

Remember those who mourned or who are scared or who are sad or in pain on this night. Remember that in the darkness, there was born a light.