The Wonder – Look for the Light

Merry Christmas!

I love Christmas. The entire holiday season really. I plan and shop and start early so I can be done in time to enjoy the actual season. I have to protect it or it becomes a busy, buzzy holiday and I miss the joy.

Christmas is beautiful and hard. With all the scheduled merriment comes a lot of complicated feelings. It's not the most wonderful time of the year for everyone. Christmas for those in deep grief can be excruciating.

Christmas requires an invitation from me. It's delicate. I try to get everything done so I don't miss it—you know, that thing that makes you feel Christmas? I wait for it. I look for it. It's different for me every year. Maybe it's surprising someone with a special gift or catching a glimpse of a particularly sparkly tree after a snow. Maybe it's a quiet hike or a certain harmony in a Christmas carol at church—I can never predict, but there's always a moment, if I'm looking, when Christmas comes to me.

The days are shorter and the nights are longer. Our to-do lists are overwhelming and maybe even impossible. Obligations are at their highest. But I pray that Christmas finds you, dear friends. Like the delicate flame of a candle in the night, may a whisper of the thrill of hope and a flicker of joy find you even if you're in a hard and dark season. Look for the light, dear ones. Look for the light. The Light is coming.