It was his response to me asking him his plans for Christmas that caused me to reflect for the next two hours.
“I will be spending Christmas with my girls and their families.”, he said. “Since my wife passed away I have had many lonely nights. And you can only talk to the dog so much.”
How could one be lonely during such a extended period of celebration?
“For unto us a Child is born, Unto us a Son is given.”
The phrasing of this passage and the use of the word “us” is not an indication of being alone.
For the Child was given to us plural and to all men were the good tidings presented.
And even though the shepherds came to the Child together as a group they came before Him as individuals and alone.
That has always been a point of interest to me.
He came to us but He seeks us, (me), out as an individual, one on one.
It was and remains an individual’s decision to celebrate His birth and follow the teachings of Christ.
Groups are not followers, we as individuals are followers.
The path of Christ can in fact be quite lonely.
When those you love are no longer there.
When the moments that you treasured have now been put away like a photograph album in a dusty attic.
When the distance between joy and sorrow is as close as one breath to the next.
When thirty five feet might as well be thirty five years.
Away from the hustle and the bustle of the season there are also quiet and still moments when we reflect upon the reason for our adoration.
And in a quiet moment of my own, I recall the words of a song where in the lyrics an individual is in fact calling out to the masses;
“O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.”
“For He who is mighty has done great things for me.” Luke 1:49
JHH
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