Christmas Wonder
How was your Christmas? I’ve been describing the Denson family Christmas as “memorable.” This is definitely the Christmas we will not forget. If you participated in Christmas worship at St. Paul’s, either in person or via the livestream, you likely heard that our holiday was significantly impacted by COVID. Yes, almost three years since the pandemic began, COVID continues to be very present and real.
Our challenge was not feeling sick. Only one of us experienced significant symptoms, and those felt like a nasty cold. The challenge was isolation. At certain points, the four of us in the house stayed in separate rooms. Because we didn’t know COVID was in the house before Eli’s flight left New York, they spent three days alone in a hotel before flying back on Christmas Day. Our dear friend, Chip, who spends every Christmas with us, stayed in San Francisco. We awakened the morning of December 22 anticipating our first full family Christmas since 2019. A few hours later, that hope had evaporated.
Other highlights of our Christmas? We lost water for a few hours (a water main break in our neighborhood), lost power twice, missed in-person Christmas worship at St. Paul’s and dealt with the meltdown of Southwest Airlines when Taylor and his fiancée, Nicole, got stuck in Indy for three extra days.
None of this comes close to describing how truly difficult Christmas was for us. Details about the family drama that arose during our COVID isolation can stay in the family.
Yet, in so many ways the light of Christ continued to shine. The 12 days of Christmas have not been all darkness and isolation. We gathered via Zoom as a family the evening of Christmas Day. Though not in person we were face-to-face and enjoyed our annual game of Christmas trivia. The Southwest flight cancellation gave us a few more days with Taylor and Nicole. We enjoyed many of our favorite Christmas foods. We were fortified by the prayers and support of so many people from St. Paul’s.
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it,” John writes in the prologue of his gospel (John 1:5). As many times as I’ve read or heard these words, I don’t know that I’ve ever experienced them more profoundly than I have this Christmas season.
As we enter 2023, I am in the 61st year of my life and the 31st year of my ordained ministry. Even after all of this time, I still have so much to learn. Christmas comes even when what we expect and plan for is stripped away. Christmas comes whenever light glimmers in the darkness, joy breaks forth in the midst of struggle and love endures after the family drama.
As filmmaker Kirsten Johnson said in her documentary, Dick Johnson is Dead, “It would be so easy if loving only gave us the beautiful, but what loving demands is that we face the fear of losing each other. That when it gets messy, we hold each other close. And that when we can, we defiantly celebrate our brief moments of joy.” (As quoted in Anderson Cooper’s podcast, All There Is).
All we really know when we enter a new year is that it won’t all be good or all bad, all happiness or all sorrow. Whatever happens, I hope you will continue to experience the wonder of Christmas. May your year will be filled with moments of joy, glimmers of light and love that endures.