And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” Luke 2:10
I didn’t want to do a Christmas card this year. When we found out that we were unexpectedly expecting in April, we were terrified. Eventually we came to realize what kind of blessings come in the form of babies and we embraced this unexpected blessing. We did a cute little announcement about the news, we did a gender reveal video and when we realized how close to Christmas card time Cheyenne was to be born, we decided that we would go and have those precious newborn pictures done (the kind I never got my act together enough to have done with my other kids) and update our family portrait at the same time (our last ones were taken when Levi was 1) and use our Christmas card as a combination Christmas card and birth announcement.
When she died just 34 days before her planned arrival, I scrapped the whole idea. How could we…? What would we say…? How can we take a picture with someone so obviously missing? How will we be able to smile? Will we ever be able to smile again?
Through the dark days that followed, there were several scriptures and hymns that spoke to me and helped me keep moving forward. On the darkest of those days, the day we picked her ashes up from the funeral home, I couldn’t even manage those. It was a, “Lord, hear my tears, because I have no words” kind of day – for all of us. The kind of day where every breath felt like a miracle and I had no confidence that the next time I inhaled that my lungs would rise to the challenge and hold the air. But despite the pain, I still had a husband and kids and a dog and things that needed to be taken care of. I was driving to get some dinner for the kids and through my tears, the thing that stayed in my mind was the lesson that my kids learned in Vacation Bible School over the summer, “When life _______, God is good!” In VBS, they used, ‘is unfair’, ‘is scary’, ‘is sad’, ‘changes’ and ‘is good’. At that moment, I couldn’t have found a word to put in that blank, so I clung to the fact that no matter what, God is good.
Sometime after that, the thought of Christmas cards came back to mind. What is the purpose of a Christmas card if not to proclaim the good news of great joy that came in the form of a baby? Why wouldn’t we proclaim that message now? The hope that we have through the birth of Jesus is the only thing that has sustained us these past weeks!
We rallied the troops, booked a last-minute photo session at our local JCPenney (not what I had initially planned), made sure we had matching outfits and headed over there (there were exactly 3 families there at the same time all in the same plaid! #awkward). We had very low expectations and JCPenney failed to meet even those, but we got what we went for, a picture of the four of us, suitable for our Christmas card (after some cropping).
So, this is us. We had a year full of too many blessings to count, we were grateful for the opportunity to travel and see so many members of our extended families and make memories that will last a lifetime. We endured a tragedy that makes no sense to us, but we continue to proclaim the GOOD NEWS and wish you the merriest of Christmases!
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” Luke 2:11-14