Disappointment

 December 23, 2022

The weathermen actually got it right. The Christmas Blizzard of 2022 is a record-breaker. Hundreds of flights cancelled, major highways closed, high winds are taking down trees and power lines (fast-forward to 2030 when NYS bans gas appliances and furnaces. Electric not-so-heat will be fun). Christmas Eve services are being cancelled quicker than Ben Shapiro at Berkeley. Plans that have been in the works for months are vanishing like cars in a white-out. Whoever was dreaming of a white Christmas can stop anytime now.

I must be careful here. I am sitting in a warm house; so far, we still have electricity, and even if we didn’t, the wood stove out back is churning out all the heat we need. The day didn’t go quite as planned though. Nate had borrowed the tractor to plow out his driveway, and when he returned it said, “Your garage door opener is broken.” In the summertime, that wouldn’t be such bad news, but when the temperature is in the teens, it’s not what I wanted to hear. 

Fortunately, it wasn’t really broken, other than the chain drive had somehow detached from the cable. After a few trips to the store for parts, I was able to fix that, but couldn’t get the adjustment right; it would only open about halfway, and the stop at the close kept bumping the door open again. No amount of fiddling and adjusting on my part was enough to fix it. Fortunately, we can operate it by hand, and when the temperature climbs into the 50s next week, I can take more time with it. Five hours in the cold today was enough.

Then this evening, our water froze. Again fortunately, a few years ago, Linda bought me a torpedo heater, and it didn’t take too long to bring it in and fire it up. Water is flowing once more.

It’s not the Christmas folks have been hoping for. People are disappointed, angry, frustrated. Sounds to me like that very first Christmas when Joseph had to break the news to Mary that even though nine months’ pregnant, they would be taking a trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem because of another government tax scheme. The trip was bad enough, but the accommodations upon arrival were even worse, and news that Herod was on the rampage didn’t help. Whatever plans they had made for the birth of their first child were only a wistful memory. Reality was much harsher than hopes and dreams.

So in your disappointment and frustration, take heart. Maybe you can identify with our Savior who chose to identify with us by coming to this earth in the form of a little baby born into poverty and oppression, eventually to die on a cross for our salvation.