The Christmas season is here! How do you feel about that? Excited, anxious, stressed, joyful? There are so many dynamics to the holidays that can bring up a variety of emotions. Many memes and movies highlight the stress of the season as family comes together 🤪 and then there’s other movies, posts etc that make us feel like we “should” have something perfect at the holidays. Oh my, what a fantasy.
The first Christmas wasn’t even perfect. I can’t imagine having to travel on foot or by donkey if they had one when Mary was SO pregnant. Then desperate for a place to sleep and finding one in a stable. That’s when labor begins? Seriously?! It must have been cold, confusing, and thrilling. Angels appeared to shepherds and then they left their sheep to go see the baby. This is not a “normal“ labor & delivery situation. What even is “normal”?
My oldest son hosted our Thanksgiving and my younger son & wife helped tremendously. We all pitched in. Our daughter-in-law’s family joined us and we had a wonderful time together. My heart was full but also heavy. I found myself sad that we wouldn’t be calling my sister-in-law as we lost her to brain cancer this year. I saw a gift the other day I would have purchased for her & felt the hole of her absence this Christmas season. Joy and grief collided. Perhaps you feel the tension too. Life can be both wonderful and painful at the same time.
I love the Christmas carol that says “a weary world rejoices.” In the darkness of winter, Christmas lights shine brightly, s symbol of the Hope that came that first imperfect Christmas. Luke 1:78-79 are some of my favorite Christmas verses, “because of the tender mercy of our God by which the rising sun will come to us from heaven to shine on those living in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”
Christmas is all about the Light coming and shining hope in darkness. It seems the red cardinal has become a symbol of the holidays. Red feathers contrast against white snow on Christmas cards. One day while visiting with my sister-in-law in GA while she was on hospice, a flash of red appeared outside her kitchen window. It was my first sighting of a red cardinal in nature. Her four year old daughter and I were painting together, so we decided to try and paint one and his mate.
Huntergirl sings a country song I like about how seeing a red bird is a sign of God’s care. I love the refrain which says, “I could use a red bird right now.” It’s a heartfelt cry for God to show up in the dark and give reassurance that He’s still present, still cares, and there’s a purpose in the madness of our world.
I just finished painting a cardinal in remembrance of that moment in my sister-in-law’s kitchen when a red bird showed up. I still don’t understand why she went to heaven so young, leaving a young daughter and husband behind. I do have hope that even in the midst of this, God still shows up and cares. There’s peace in trusting even when I don’t understand.
Here in CA we don’t get many literal red birds that show up, but wherever we are may we have eyes to see the ways in which God wants to remind us that He’s present. This Christmas, may His light shine in our hearts, filling us with hope. Hope is contagious. May His light shine in and through us to help our weary world see reasons to rejoice.