Holidays, Humility, Hope

Each year, the holidays give me an opportunity to savor the joys of life, to ponder my priorities and my relationships, and to consider what lies ahead.  By the end of December and into early January,  I am typically feeling  a mixture of being filled up with the joy of family time, extended family time, a extra time with special friends, mixed with fatigue and fogginess from the disruption to daily routines that the holidays bring.

So as I sit here this morning, pondering this year's Christmas celebrations, I thought I'd try to capture some of these things in words and photos.

First, here is a quick recap of our Christmas highlights for 2019.

Holidays: Our annual participation in the Christmas orchestra at church--Tom on trumpet, me on my baritone horn, and Lilly on her flute--was a source of great joy to hear all of the hours of rehearsals and practice come together in a sound that brought glory to God. And, not to be left out, Bella contributed by helping to provide childcare for orchestra and choir members' children during rehearsals.  Many thanks to our friend, Bill Bowers, for capturing some great photos!

We enjoyed Christmas Eve as a family, with both Jared and Anna home, and--for the first time in several years--Tom and I were not playing in a brass quartet for Christmas Eve candlelight services, so it was a quieter and more relaxed Christmas Eve.  Our tradition is meat fondue, cheese fondue, and chocolate fondue, and each year the kids take charge of more and more of the food prep, which is wonderful! 

We hosted my family on Christmas Day--what joy to have my parents, my brother's family, and all the dogs that come along with them all!  Laughter, good food, lots of presents, a Christmas light scavenger hunt walk, Christmas Caroling around the piano, more food, more laughter, some games....you get the idea.  The fun extended over two days as my parents and two of my nieces spent the night.  Later the next day my brother's family returned to help us eat leftovers  and we had our second annual gingerbread house decorating contest. Thanks to my lovely sister-in-law, Lita, for taking such a amazing photos!

And, as I type write now, we are driving home from our annual “Cantilina Christmas” festivities in New Jersey with Tom’s family.  Each year Tom and his siblings rotate which sibling’s family is responsible for all the planning of that year’s festivities.  This year, it was his sister Judi’s turn, and she planned a wonderful afternoon for all of us using the fellowship area of their church so there was plenty of space for all, plenty of seating around tables for the meal, and plenty of fun activities for all ages—gingerbread house decorating, Cantilina Christmas Trivia, gift exchanges from each family, and musical performance by Lilly on flute, her cousins Naomi on violin, and her Auntie Em on the flute.

Humility?  You might, at this point in this blog post, be wondering about the title that I chose.  The many holiday highlights I have just described have little to do with humility or hope. But I chose the title based on the things that were happening in my heart in the midst of all the holiday festivities.

The holidays are a much-anticipated time of year and—for me at least—it seems that most of the “normal” activities of life go on hiatus for much of the month of December as Bible studies or other weekly ministry programs wrap up, kids’ activities take a break, and schools close for a solid two weeks.  The blessing of this is much time together as a family and with friends. The flip side of all that time together can be subtle friction, frustration, and feeling frazzled.  I do not mean to suggest that our family time was fraught with lots of fighting or unpleasant interactions.  But having concentrated time with others has a way of bringing into stark focus perhaps personality or character traits we enjoy less than others.  For me, it made me more aware of my own tendency to be impatient, critical, and selfish as I related to those I love.

Hence my reference to “humility” in my title.  It is humbling when we recognize our sinful tendencies.  The realization of my heart condition brought me to a fresh place of conviction of my own sin, my need for repentance, my need for Jesus whom we have been celebrating, and my need to be daily letting my mind be renewed by the Word of God and to be walking by His Holy Spirit. It can be discouraging to be brought to a place of humility (yet again).  And yet, in Christ, we have hope that He who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it.

Hope? Not only do I need hope that there is grace for my own sin, but I have also been pondering that family gatherings also have a way of bringing into stark contrast the natural transitions that families endure as well as the aging process and changes in our physical bodies and health.  Some of the people who formerly were the young kids at family gatherings are now the young married parents bringing their own little ones.  Some of the people who were formerly those young parents with little ones are now the ones bringing their young adult children (or coming without them, if young adult responsibilities make it impossible for those young adults to travel and take the time with family).  Some of our family gatherings this year involved more walkers, less mobility, more restricted diets for some.  Some of these many kinds of changes are pure joy, and others--though they are a natural part of life's progression--can sometimes feel sad and painful and hard.  And yet, in Christ, we have hope that He holds us and our loved ones as we endure the length of our days and as we watch new generations arise.

So, while the holiday festivities are fun, and laughter with loved ones is good for the soul, I realize afresh that our true source of hope for each busy day, each increasingly rapidly passing year, and for all eternity, is Jesus.  The relationship he offers us with God the Father allows us to enjoy rest, peace, and hope that God’s work of creation, His plan of redemption, and His ongoing work in our world and in the hearts of those who are His is good, is under His control,  and is not yet finished.

We have a great and blessed hope.

We are reminded of this hope when we slow down to meditate on God's Word and the truths it contains about Him.  The holidays—with their disruption to normal routines and lack of alone time—require that we be even more intentional than usual in the daily spiritual disciplines of Bible reading and prayer.  For me, the most wonderful moments of the Christmas season were the early morning times of solitude when I sat in my dad’s old Windsor chair, now parked in our sunroom by the Christmas tree, with my Bible and my prayer journal, reflecting on God’s great power, His great love, and His amazing grace—my sources of hope for my own sin, for the people I love, and for this world we live in.

Hope is a strong motivator and a necessity as each of us navigates life—during the holidays and each day thereafter.  I praise God for the hope that we have in Christ.   And I am grateful for the examples God gives us in the Bible of others who--despite tendencies toward depression and spiritual darkness--knew where to look to find their hope.  David, the writer of most of the Psalms in the Bible wrote in Psalms 42:11 “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.”

As this holiday season comes to a close and we stride into 2020, may our hope be in the Lord as we trust Him to help us see our own sin, as we turn to Him for cleansing and renewal, and as we trust Him to do His work in our hearts, in our loved ones' lives, and in our world.

And, in case you need a reminder, as I do every year as I begin the undecorating and the normal rhythms of life begin to gear up, read this post from my archives to remember why "Christmas is Not Over."