Proverbs 14:30 A  sound mind makes for a robust body, but runaway emotions corrode the bones.

This year, the Christmas of 2018 has seemed to be anything but joyful.  My husband is going through bout with infection that I thought had been cleared during his stay at the hospital back in September of 2018.  I found out that it had not been so when I woke up at 4:45 am., to the sounds of him screaming out,  “Help, Help!”  He had fallen and needed help getting up.  I later told my husband that it felt like I was sleep walking in the middle of the night when he was calling out for help.

Christmas Eve was spent calling his doctor, in the hopes of getting a medicine for husband before the pharmacy closed for Christmas.  We told his doctor that we just did not have any money for him to go into the hospital at this time.  That there are other things that have come due in our lives at the end of the year.  We were also trying to look ahead into 2019.

That Christmas of so long ago when Jesus was born, did not come into the world with a bang and a shout.  It was more of a quiet and subdued submission to the Holy One.  The Angels’ ruckus even terrified the poor smelly shepherds who were just out doing their nightly jobs.  No one had any clue to the specialness of that event.  The raggedy shepherds took their place in line along with some unclean animals, and the imperfection of the manger in the “motel.”

My church held an evening service, complimented with Christmas carols and communion.  The church pianist was a little rushed and told me her cold had been getting worse.  I was feeling stressed about my husband, and he was not there with me celebrating the quietness of the Christmas birth.  I was thinking of the government shutdown, which seemed to put a damper on my mood for the holiday season.  It also reminded me of the government census that brought them to the stable in the first place.  The census had unknowingly provided the backdrop for this special birth to take place.  An extraordinary even taking place in an ordinary barn.

I was watching this video of “Blue Christmas.”  In the sermon I heard “it’s ok not to feel joy or happiness.  It’s ok to feel sadness or gloomy even.  It’s like the video had validated what my husband and I were feeling at the moment.  We sang the songs, in not our best voice, that were included with the video.  I was really grateful to all who had participated.

The moods  I have been feeling this year, along with all the extra stress from the husband situation; have run the gamut of being the colors of a rainbow! Do you remember the colors of the rainbow from grade school science? ROY G. BIV.  It stands for the colors of Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet.  On another spectrum of colors, my mood this year has ranged anywhere from shades of white to gray to black, and then white again.  I wish my moods were more in sync with the colors of Christmas, red, gold, green, silver, and purple.  Our moods do not remain static.  Life is not static.  It is every evolving, changing, turning, and moving in any way possible.  God does not stand still.

My husband will eventually get well, and get his glasses, and resume his driving.  The holiday season of 2018 will end.  Work will resume.  It’s the nature of Life and Love.

May you have a blessed Christmas season, no matter what situation you may find yourself in at the time.

Love and Light,
Marci