Good Tidings, To All People, At All Times

Can you believe it's Christmas Eve? This is a night usually filled with family traditions and time spent with loved ones. It is a night that stirs up childhood memories and spurs us to eagerly make new traditions in our families.

For the majority of us, this Christmas Eve will look much different than in the past. Many families have been affected by the pandemic of 2020. There may be grief at a loss in our family, or a sickness that keeps some away from our celebrations. Or simply caution, that keeps our gatherings from being what they once were. Whatever the reason, this Christmas looks and feels much different.

My first thoughts when realizing our family Christmas would be different this year were disappointment and sorrow. If there is anything stable through the year, it is Christmas! With a loved one sick and in the hospital and others staying home to protect themselves, we must adapt to not being together, which is heartbreaking. It just doesn't feel like Christmas when we are not able to fill our heart and home with traditions.

In the midst of my disappointment, my thought went to the first Christmas. It wasn't the Christmas Mary and Joseph dreamed of either! Treacherous travel, continual denial of a place to stay and a birth in a stable surely wasn't the Christmas plan for them! But the Christmas story is a vivid reminder that God's ways are beautifully not our ways. The good news of Jesus' birth to the shepherds is still the good news for us today.

The song of the angels to the shepherds with the message that Jesus was born is good news that eclipse and overshadows whatever else is happening in our lives right now. It is what every person needs for all of the things that threaten to deprive us of joy.

May this Christmas, we stand amazed like the shepherds that night long ago, at the good news that is good for every person, a message of hope, love, joy and peace - all wrapped up in God's gift to mankind - Jesus.

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