This Christmas, What I Will Do

I can’t imagine holding only a picture of my son and daughter and not holding them in my arms.  Blankets, favorite stuffed animals, dolls…something they liked best, now the only thing left to cling to. How can one celebrate in the wake of Sandy Hook?  Christmas is upon us, and how can it be done?  Residents from that town took down Christmas lights.  I probably would have too.  There are so many troubled hearts asking, “Why?”  “God if only you had been there.” And “Why did you let this happen?”   I cannot explain, what is unexplainable.  I find myself thinking some of the same worrisome questions. 

No earthly soul can answer them. 

 But I do know my God, our God.  He is a God who loves and carries the tears of the broken in His heart.  He is the God of all, who sent His Son for All so that we could have the fullness of His love that will one day come and rid the world of all evil.  He is the ONE who has all the answers and solutions.  I know the God who made the heavens and earth, which formed everything by His beautiful hands, does NOT desire the world to be this way!  His works are beautiful as my soul has seen, and as my ears have heard, as my eyes have focused upon.  Nothing but beauty and love and everything but good is from His hand.

But the hand of the enemy gives only evil, death, sickness and pain.  His hands cause nothing of beauty, or of righteousness.  His evil hands cause nothing, but hurt, heartache and treachery.  But the time is coming and it will come when God enemy’s hands will be bound FOREVER and he will be DESTROYED and forever will be gone. ALL EVIL WILL BE GONE.   Beauty will be restored.  The dead will rise.  Families will be reunited.  Tears of joy will flood the world, a million and forever hugs will be shared forever and Ever and EVER….I know my God!  He has a plan. He has the ANSWERS. His hands will bring it.  He has a plan for the heartache that has occurred.  It may not come in the morning, or in the years of our lifetime, but it will come!  And that is why we celebrate Christmas.  That is what Christmas is ALL about; Him sending the beginning of His plan, to restore His people to Himself, and destroy all EVIL. 

Christmas came over two thousand years ago in a stable of rock and hay.  The angels announced His birth and shepherds knelt at his feet, while the baby’s mother held her son’s hand, the hand that would one day hold the cross, the same hand that holds us now, and the hand that holds the keys to unlock the grave. 

Christmas had come to the world and God’s plan began.  Two thousand years have gone by and it seems so long to me in the fulfillment of that plan and all I keep thinking is “God let your Kingdom come….Come and take care of all of these ashes.  Take away All the sorrow and turn mourning into joy.”  As in years past, my husband and I pray with our children before they open their presents.  Trying in some small way to praise Him and put Him first.  This Christmas, when the bells of children’s voices ring out to get up and go to the tree, I know that I won’t be able to help but think about those from Sandy Hook who have lost and who must feel not an ounce of “celebration”.  The word doesn’t even seem fitting to pen.  And so, this Christmas as in the first Christmas ever to be celebrated, I will bow my knees like the shepherds, to the One who came to GIVE LIFE.  I will bow my knees to the One who came to buy back our Lives from the grave.  I will bow my knees to the One who came to give Liberty to those who are bound.  I will bow my knees to the One who will do more than you or I can ever comprehend…and I will pray for HIS KINGDOM TO COME.

It is the only answer that will take away the “Why?”

“Our Father in Heaven, Holy is Your Name (Yahweh).  Let your Kingdom Come…

Let Your Will be done….on earth as it is up in Heaven.”

May all our hearts pray this, this Christmas.

One day the arms that have held onto a tattered teddy bear weighed down by tears, a favorite blanket, and a torn photograph, will be replaced….HIS hands will take them away and replace them with a son and daughter, the sons and daughters of Sandy Hook.

Come Quickly O’ LORD….Come Quickly!

~Suzanne M. Rafferty