What is your saddest Christmas memory? My apologies if this question caught you off guard or if you were expecting an opening line that was significantly more “merry and bright” on the day before Christmas. But, I seriously want you to stop reading for a moment and think about it. What is the saddest memory that you associate with Christmas?
Maybe you just now thought about something that happened many, many Decembers ago, so long ago that it almost seems like it happened in another lifetime, or someone else’s lifetime. It might be that you have experienced several Christmases that could competitively vie for the title of “worst ever.” Perhaps you would identity the Christmas that is coming tomorrow, because of what is currently burdening your heart, troubling your thoughts, and causing pain in the depths of your soul.
If circumstances past or present have you in a state of mind and emotion that simply makes it impossible for you to feel overly excited or enthusiastic about feasting and festivities, ribbons and bows, trees and wreaths, tinsel and toys, please keep reading. Christmas is precisely for you.
My saddest Christmas came in 1984 when my grandfather passed away unexpectedly on December 25 from a heart attack, just as our family was gathering at his home. It wasn’t just sad, but shockingly so, and Christmas Day would never be the same again. One of the two Christmases that I spent in Australia was the most melancholy and disappointing that I ever experienced because a much-anticipated holiday visit from a friend from the U.S. didn’t happen.
At this time eight years ago, Dad was in St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa following another heart attack and MRSA infection, all of which seriously negated the recovery he had made since the massive heart failure he suffered two hours after Mom’s death on September 16 of that year. I was asked to leave his hospital room while a PICC line was being put in his upper arm, so I headed to the lobby to wait for Kim and Hannah to arrive for a shift change. I stood alone on the stairs above the lobby and listened as a choir of Amish teenagers sang, “O Come, All Ye Faithful” and “Silent Night.” Tears began to flow. There was not an ounce of happiness lurking anywhere in my body at that moment, but my grief, sadness, and emotional wounds were being bound up and dressed with the oil and wine of hope, expressed in the words of those hymns of faith in Jesus Christ as God’s Son, Immanuel, “God with us,” a Savior, the hope of the nations, love’s pure light.
Christmas is a season for every emotion. Christmas affirms our faith that Jesus came into this world to bring light into our darkness (John 8:12), to provide sympathetic mercy and comfort for our sorrows (Isaiah 53:3-4; Heb. 4:15-16), to offer gentle nurture and loving protection for the bruised reeds and flickering candles of our hearts (Isaiah 42:1-3), to compassionately bind up the wounds of the brokenhearted (Isaiah 61:1), and to bring reassuring calm into our chaos as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
Far beyond a mere wish, my sincere prayer for you this Christmas is this: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit,” (Romans 15:13).
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
December 24, 2018 at 1:41 pm
Mollie Dinwiddie
This year is my saddest Christmas. My daughter is suffering dreadfully from depression and is confined in a psychiatric hospital due to suicidal comments. She is in a deep, dark hole and the medications are not yet helping her. She has given up all hope. I was with her two weeks ago today (trying not to leave her alone) and I fell down a full flight of stairs at her house injuring myself pretty severely. I have a compression fracture, bone fragments in my spinal canal, bulging discs, and spinal stenosis plus they found I have a deformed kidney on an MRI. I see a doctor this week to see about some treatment, plus have a CT scan on the kidney (possibly nothing to worry about as it may be a birth defect and I am 69 now). I see a neuro surgeon in about two weeks. I have not been free from pain much, especially at night when I am in bed. I am now sleeping as best I can in a recliner. I appreciated reading what you just wrote and I have been in constant prayer for help for quite some time now (well before the fall). I will continue to endeavor to put my trust and faith in Jesus and to be glad that Jesus was born to save us. I try to do that 365 days a year and not just at Christmas or Easter. However, it is very hard at the moment. I know I must get well for the rest of my family who are also hurting. Please pray for us.
December 25, 2018 at 7:20 am
Tim Pyles
Mollie, I am so sorry to learn of your daughter’s debilitating battle with depression, and the severe injuries that you sustained in the fall down the stairs. Both of you have been in my prayers since reading your comment. I pray that your daughter is receiving precisely the care and treatment that she so desperately needs right now, and that your painful spinal injuries will heal, restoring your comfort and mobility once again. I pray that on this Christmas Day, even in the midst of such difficult trials and discouragements, that your hope will be sustained, knowing that we have a Father who is attentive to our cries, and a Savior who sympathetically suffers with us and intercedes for us, providing us mercy and grace to help in time of need. May God bless you with peace, comfort, and sustaining hope!
December 26, 2018 at 3:44 pm
Kim Pyles
❤️❤️❤️
Sent from my iPad
>
December 26, 2018 at 4:40 pm
Mollie Dinwiddie
Thank you so very much. Prayer is powerful and I truly appreciate yours and your encouraging words.