Wednesday, December 24, 2014

When Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas {for every hurting heart}.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
here where strife and shame have a standing invitation.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
here where hurt has overstayed its welcome by months, years.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When traditions are overturned and stability is void.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When parents become children and children become the caregivers.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When quarreling has a plate set at dinner.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When extravagance is pursued to cover what is missing.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When you are surrounded by “family” who are strangers.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When hate seems to have won the day.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When we are lonely.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When sorrow steals the light from our eyes.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When nothing shines like it used to-

Not the lights or the tree or the gifts or the stars
That wait with anticipation.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When nights are sleepless, aching, empty.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When bitterness has dug its roots into your soul.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When love is far from sight,
Far from our arms,
With no return ticket.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When we fight instead of sing,

When we throw words like flaming arrows,
And scar hearts made for eternal love.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When the sky is dark,

And we are sitting in the ashes,
Cold and shivering,

Wondering when, or if,
Dawn will ever break.

 It doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When we are crumbling under the weight

Of worries that bend our backs
And break our spirits.

And it doesn’t feel like Christmas,
When we are worn out,

Threadbare from hurry, needs unmet,
Grief, depression, suffering-

Name the poison.
It doesn’t feel like Christmas when life is this hard.

But the truth is Christ still came,
For exactly these reasons,

For the aches in our souls
that we can barely endure-He came.

Because He knows us;
He knows that we are dust,

We are weak and lonely and poor in spirit,
Whatever else in the world we may be.

And He saw us, and loved us in our broken state.
And so He came.

To deliver. To renew. To right every wrong.
To comfort. To redeem. To give life,

Where we had only ever tasted death,
To bring the love of God to us.

When we could never reach His heights,
He came to our depths.

Because He is pure love,
And love will not be deterred.

Love will not rest while the
Beloved groans in chains they cannot break.

So He came.
Laying down all His glory, He came.

Becoming one of us, opening Himself
Up to the suffering we face.

That He might love us,
And give us hearts to love Him back.

So Christmas is still here,
The morning still comes,

Though it may look nothing like we
Once had hoped,

Hope still lives,
Because Christ still lives.

And here after the manger
And after the Cross,

We wait with longing in the “not yet”,
To see the “yes” to every promise He has made.

Even as we ache, we can wait with full hearts,
Because we have seen and tasted Love Incarnate

Because He came,
And He comes again,
Not as a babe but as a beautiful King,
Who sustains galaxies with His words,

Who is redeeming all things even in this moment,
When we can’t see it yet,

And who will make everything right
and better than we can ever understand.

‘Til then, we wait with hope,
Even though tonight that first Christmas seems a universe away.

Because Love has come and Love will return,
And Christmas is real here-

because Jesus came. 

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