If I’ve counted correctly, this is my 74th Christmas.
I know Christmas is filled with rituals. For instance, the day before Christmas, my father would get a real tree. On Christmas Eve, we all would gather to decorate it.
Then, on New Year’s Day, we would take down the decorations, and my father would move the tree outside to the backyard.
The day before Christmas, my mother and I would go Christmas shopping from early morning until late afternoon.
One Christmas, after a full day of shopping, our car was packed with presents. I don’t know how much my mother spent, but it must’ve been a lot.
On our way home, my mother remembered something she’d forgotten. She turned around and went back to a store for Christmas cards.
We both went in, and my mother bought about 20 cards. As we left, she sighed and said, “Son, it’s been a busy day and I’m glad it’s over. I can’t wait to get home.” I agreed.
When we went into the store for the cards, the car was filled with all the Christmas presents we’d spent all day gathering.
When we got to the car it was empty. All our Christmas shopping for the day had disappeared.
My mother stood just staring into that car for what felt like forever. I could feel her grief hanging heavily between us.
Someone had broken into our car and stole all our presents, leaving us with nothing but shock and a hollow ache.
We got home, walked into the living room, and saw the Christmas tree waiting to be decorated. Dad greeted us and said, “Where’s all the Christmas presents?”
Without saying anything, my mother walked in and sat down, and was quiet for a few moments. Then she looked at my father and said, “Someone stole all our Christmas presents while we were in the last store.”
My father just stared at her, shook his head, and said quietly, “What are we to do now?”
After a relatively quiet dinner that night, we went into the living room and began decorating the Christmas tree. No one talked as usual, we just put together all the decorations.
It was one of the worst Christmas days our family ever had. We celebrated as usual, and Mother had a wonderful dinner for us. It was hard, but we decided to move forward and celebrate our family rather than dwell on our missing gifts.
No matter how difficult Christmases have been since that time, none has equaled the sadness of that one.
Recently reflecting on that Christmas, an encouraging verse of scripture came to my mind.
“Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.”
— Psalms 42: 11
Not everything turns out the way we plan. I haven’t had a Christmas like this, but there have been times when I thought all was going wrong.
It’s times like this we need to focus not on what’s going wrong but on God. My faith in God gets me through all problem s no matter how difficult.
Dr. Snyder is a former pastor who lives with the Gracious Mistress of the Parsonage, wife Martha, in Ocala, Fla. His email is [email protected].
