Merry, Beautiful Christmas!

It is Christmas morning. I'm sitting alone in my living room by the soft light of the Christmas tree… beautiful. I glance around the quiet room and see each person’s face from the night before. I hear laughter as I remember my sister and brother and I reminiscing about our childhood, and Grandma defending herself. I recall thinking, “Mom, you are such a good sport, thank you for allowing us all to laugh together tonight, even if it is at your expense, it sounds so beautiful.”


A few days ago I went for a walk around our neighborhood after dark. It was very quiet and I could see snow softly floating through the light of the street lamps. I thought of my conversation with my sister on the phone that afternoon. Her voice was solemn as she told me about her family’s Christmas gathering, and how her glance around the room saw a missing child, and a son pale and tired from cancer treatments. The ache in my heart turned into words as I walked along in the snow, “He was only seven, Jesus…he was only seven.”

I felt Jesus weeping with me, His heart breaking too. I came to a bend in the sidewalk that wound along a small stream and under some  tall pine trees. It was dark for a second or two and that’s when I saw it. The moon was hazy, but it shone on the freshly fallen snow and everywhere I looked I saw tiny sparkles, like a zillion diamonds had spilled all over the ground! I stood still as the beauty of it seemed to wrestle with the darkness of my thoughts. Suddenly another thought burst through..."beauty wins!"  The horrible things of this life have been overcome by Jesus and in His time He will make everything beautiful...EVERYTHING.