More thoughts on Bah-humbug

It seems many are fed up this year with the commercialization of Christmas, and the feeling that this is 'the time to give' and no other time is... Or else, stressed out by the difficult situations in our lives that make it difficult to feel joyful at the time of a Christmas holiday. And that's ok. It's real.

But 'Bah humbugginess' (I just love putting suffixes on Bah humbug!) confuses me just a bit too. We don't have to be caught up in the commercialism. Not if we know what the real point is!!! I have many blessings this year, and maybe that's why I'm not understanding bah humbug as well at times. My husband will BE HOME for this holiday (I'm so pumped!!!), I am with child at this advent season... I am literally pregant in anticipation of our coming child and of Christ as well! Maybe it is the blessing of these things that overshadow me... and keep me feeling the wonder and fun of 'the season.'

And yet, I have fallen in and out of Bah-humbugging too. I wonder about the uncertainties of next Christmas. And I am not going to be able to travel to be with my family for this Christmas knowing time is precious. My mama will likely be having some medical procedures of some sort done around Christmastime and I won't be there to hold her hand. Some days this just devestates me. I have up days and down days emotionally, and days of keeping coming impending separations from my husband in persective better than others. Some days I escape the bah humbugs, and other days I just don't.

But then I remember... Jesus didn't come to a world full of joy and glad tidings. He came to a world that was desolate, barren, and desperate to hear ANYTHING from God... wondering if he was even still out there caring. He came not in a blaze of lightening... not in the form of a mighty supernatural ruler, but something EVEN MORE awe-inspiring... He came as a Baby! He came in such a way that we wouldn't feel threatened, in a way to ensure that our defenses and hackles about all we thought about God and his 'failures' in our lives wouldn't get in the way.

So as I see it... yeah we may be down and out... We may be depressed. We may be going through difficulties with loved ones, or we might be grieving the previous losses of loved ones. And for me looking ahead, yes, next year I will celebrate my daughter's first Christmas with her father thousands of miles away... Yes these things hurt.

But we have been given a LIGHT in the darkness. He has come and he is Emmanuel! He is GOD WITH US. He is hope... He brings me hope that I will have many more wonderful Christmases with my family, hope that this Christmas with my husband can be quiet and special and ours and somehow enough for two years worth or three years worth or for how ever many it needs be. Hope that even in the feelings of desolation I sense in others, a light may break through.

I pray that he will give you hope in whatever your circumstances as well. Things don't have to be perfect. It doesn't have to be about the gifts and the family dinners and the shopping and the Christmas tree-trimming. We don't have to be full of joy and glad tidings and Christmas card wishes all the time... Jesus came to desolation and gave us hope... and then on the other end of the life of that innocent little baby... he died that we might be free and that death would be conquered and that eventually all of us Ragamuffins (whether our Ragamuffiness is realized or not) can meet together again in that place where there are no more tears. So... Rather than being hum-buggy... I'm going to do all I can to hold on to that LIGHT in the darkness and the hope that a tiny, powerless, fragile little baby can bring to me and to you. That's nothing to bah-humbug about!