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Out To Pastor
If I have counted correctly, this is my 74th Christmas.
I know Christmas is filled with rituals.
For instance, the day before Christmas, my father would get a real Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve, we would all gather to decorate it. Then, on New Year’s Day, we would take down the decorations, and my father would move the tree outside to the backyard.
The day before Christmas, my mother and I would go Christmas shopping from early morning until late afternoon.
I remember one Christmas, after a full day of shopping, our car was packed with presents. I don’t know how much my mother spent, but it must’ve been a lot.
On our way home, my mother remembered something she had forgotten.
She turned around and went back to a store for Christmas cards she had forgotten. We both went in, and my mother bought about 20 cards. As we left, she sighed and said, “Son, it’s been a busy day—I’m glad it’s over. I can’t wait to get home.” I agreed.
When we went into the store for the Christmas cards, the car was filled with all kinds of Christmas presents we spent all day collecting.
When we got to the car, the inside was empty. All our Christmas shopping for the day had disappeared.
My mother stood just staring into that car for what felt like forever. I could feel her grief hanging heavily between us. Someone broke into our car and stole all our Christmas presents, leaving us with nothing but shock and a deep, hollow ache.
We got home, walked into the living room, and saw the Christmas tree waiting to be decorated. Dad greeted us and said, “Where’s all the Christmas presents?”
Without saying anything, my mother walked in and sat down, and was quiet for a few moments. Then she looked at my father and said, “Someone stole all our Christmas presents while we were in the last store.”
My father just stared at her, shook his head, and said quietly, “What are we to do now?”
After a relatively quiet dinner that night, we went into the living room and began decorating the Christmas tree. No one talked as usual; we just put together all the decorations.
It was one of the worst Christmas days we ever had as a family.
We celebrated Christmas as usual, and Mother had a wonderful Christmas dinner for us. It was hard, but we decided to move forward and celebrate our family rather than dwell on our missing Christmas gifts.
No matter how difficult the Christmases have been since that time, none of them has equaled the sadness of that Christmas.
Reflecting on that Christmas recently, an encouraging verse of scripture came to my mind.
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalms 42:11).
Not everything turns out the way we plan. I haven’t had a Christmas like this, but there have been times when I thought everything was going the wrong way. It’s times like this that I need to focus not on what’s going wrong but on God. My faith in God gets me through every problem no matter how difficult.
Dr. James L. Snyder lives in Ocala, FL with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage. Telephone 1-352216-3025, e-mail [email protected], website www.jamessnyderministries. com.
