Thankful for a Savior

This was a hard December.  Not for me really, but for a lot of people.  A dear friend mourning the loss of her baby girl who died just days before her due date, another friend lost her husband very suddenly of a heart attack while he was jogging to work (her sweet blog: aldridgeadoption.blogspot.com), 20 small children and 6 adults brutally shot at an elementary school in Connecticut. I think we all watched the coverage of that event in horror and disbelief.  Along with all of the sparkling Christmas decorations came a lot of tears, a lot of questions, and a lot of pain. I thought about these people, how each of them must have woken up on Christmas morning fighting back tears.  I can't imagine what it would be like to celebrate a major holiday with one less.  I don't know how that feels, and I don't think I want to know.  I admit that when difficult things happen to other people, my thoughts always land on, 'what if that happened to me?'  And the reality sets in that it really could happen to me. There are no guarantees that everyone I love will be here on earth as long as I am, or that I will get to live as long as they do.  Life is uncertain, and often heart-breaking.  We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church, and I'm convinced that rushing through dinner, dressing and packing up the kids, all became worth it when we sat in the sanctuary with our candles and sang Silent Night. It might have been the first moment that I stopped to breathe and reflect on the holiness of this holiday.  I thought about our friends and those parents whose hearts were breaking that night, and I just prayed that this Christmas would be holy for them.  That we would all be able to recognize that in a messy and often troubling world, this little perfect being came to redeem us and renew us. I think if there is any comfort to be given it's that there is hope, in this little person, there is hope in something beyond this life.  There is more to this story than life and death, but eternity and HIM.  I'm just so thankful to be given this kind of a gift, because no matter what happens, I can take refuge in this truth.