Merry Christmas from Heaven

I apologize for my full of self pity post earlier today. We have a pianist for both services tomorrow. He wanted to make sure it was okay he played the piano and not the organ. I told him I was so grateful for his willingness to fill in on such short notice that he could play the harmonica as far as I was concerned!

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I made Daughter sit under my full spectrum light for a while this afternoon. Actually, she slept under it, but then she got up and joined me in the kitchen as I was baking. She wanted to help, so I put her to work unwrapping the candy cane kisses for the candy cane blossoms I was making. I put on Christmas music. Daughter sat there crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she said the Christmas music made her think of Grandma and miss her. She had received a note from Sister's ex-Mother-in-law thanking her for her beautiful prayer at Thanksgiving, and telling her that she missed Grandma and Grandpa, too. So she sat there unwrapping kisses and I stood there rolling sugar cookies in green sugar and we both cried.

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Tomorrow night at our Blue Christmas service we will be distributing bookmarks I purchased with the poem Merry Christmas from Heaven on it. The poem is under copyright, so I can't print it here, but if you go down the page on the link and run your cursor over the framed poem, the text will appear on the right. This year I can't read it without crying. I had ordered some more and they came in the mail today. I went and got them to show Daughter. I tried to read it, but couldn't. So Daughter read it aloud. After reading it, Daughter offered to sing at the Blue Christmas service tomorrow night. I told her I thought that would be too hard, and even I wasn't planning on doing much during the service. I wrote it, but the board is leading it. Daughter wants to help, so she will help with the blue ornaments we're going to give people that they can write something on and put on a Christmas tree. At the end of the service, the following story will be read, and we'll light the Christmas tree with our blue ornaments on it. People will have the option of taking the ornaments home with them if they'd like.

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A pastor, Bass Mitchell, shared the story of driving through the mountains towards his wife’s hometown one year during the holiday season. Throughout their drive, they had seen lots of Christmas decorations, and as they came around a curve her hometown was visible before them, all lit up for Christmas. As he looked down on the town, he was puzzled by all the white lights he saw on trees at the edge of town. Where were those? Who had put them up? As he realized where they were, he pulled off the side of the road and got out of his car to look more closely. The lights were on the trees in the cemetery at the edge of town. He stood there, pondering. His first thought was that putting Christmas lights in the cemetery was just plain weird. But the more he thought about, the more he realized how appropriate it was. You see, Christ came to defeat death. Because of Christmas, we know that death is not the end, and that we will be reunited with those who have gone before us. The light of Christmas takes away some of the darkness of death. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness will never overcome it.

As I light the Christ candle, it is with the hope that the light of Christmas will lighten your pain and grief.

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I'm sitting in my living room, with the candles in the fireplace lit and the Christmas tree lights on, listening to Christmas music. The cats are curled up beside me. After Daughter gets out of the shower, she's going to make hot chocolate for both of us and come sit beside me. We may cry some more, but we'll be okay. Mom and Dad are together for Christmas this year. They're spending it with Jesus.