Blue Christmas

December 9, 2017

A number of churches in the area are holding “Blue Christmas” services this season. They are designed for those who are having a hard time getting in the holiday mood with all its emphasis on family. It’s a good thing they’re doing. The season can’t possibly live up to the hype it gets on TV, radio, internet, and print media. We don’t live in a Hallmark world where everyone except the antagonist (who might just as well be wearing a black hat) ends up warmly and romantically happy. And no amount of Jack Daniels or Christmas parties or presents can fill the void in our hearts. 

In this world, people sin, and others often bear the consequences of it. A mom and dad separate, and the kids don’t know who to trust anymore. People all across the land will sit in sad vigil by hospital beds on Christmas Day. Many of them will wearily trudge home, knowing that there is nothing that can be done. Mothers will wonder where their prodigal child is sleeping on Christmas Eve, and Fathers will anxiously await that holiday call from his son or daughter serving in harm’s way halfway around the world. Those children sleep fitfully, under a viaduct, in a filthy drug den, or on a cot in a tent under desert sky. That elderly woman who shuffles to her mailbox desperately hanging onto her walker was once a young woman in love, with dreams for a future with a husband who passed away, leaving her with only memories to keep her warm at night. The emptiness in her heart is seen in the emptiness in her eyes.

These, and many others will sit in silent darkness, without even the lights from a tree winking joy and peace. They are often our neighbors, living quietly, like little children peering through the window at joys just out of reach. If like me, you have been blessed with family and faith, this is the time to show it. Whether it be by ringing the Salvation Army bell, serving at a soup kitchen, providing a Christmas for a needy family, or inviting a lonely senior citizen for Christmas dinner, this season can be the beginning of a new awareness and a deeper compassion. To those pastors and churches offering a Blue Christmas service, Thank you. I hope I can this year in various ways be God’s instrument of blessing to someone who desperately needs one.