Peace, Happy New Year, and our Ridiculous Christmas Photo. ~ The Grace Between

Peace, Happy New Year, and our Ridiculous Christmas Photo.

Happy New Year friends {I hope yours started with less vomiting, colds, and headaches than ours did}. I sort of took an accidental hiatus from blogging and the interweb in general the last three weeks… I mean, I was still FB creeping, and posting the occasional vomit-inspired status or artistically-filtered-but-actually-terrible instagram photos of the babes. But that’s it. And honestly, it was good for me, and you, because I wasn’t very cheerful.

So this … this is what I wanted to tell you two weeks ago, then one week ago, and now it’s January 1, and I’m exhausted but determined to tell you this.

First, I am not writing you a cheery Christmas letter about all the w.o.n.d.e.r.f.u.l. things that we did/experienced/accomplished/whatever this year. {Although I LOVE getting them, so friends that haven’t given up on Christmas cards, please don’t stop sending them} Frankly, that’s what this blog is for, and it is saving me upwards of two hundred dollars a year at this point {we move a lot, we make friends, we send cards, we bleed money …}. And, in case you missed the lack of photos from July onward, my fancy camera broke and I still haven’t driven to Nashville to get it fixed. My iPhone camera is getting a work out. So this what you get for Christmas ….

Awesomeness on the iPhone, amiright? J Girl is asleep {after melting down in the Christmas Eve service}. Wee Man is literally climbing the walls and chewing on his clothes. I am …. I am wide-eyed and shell-shocked.

I digress. THIS is what I wanted to say.

I was remarkably Scrooge-ish this holiday season. We did one day of advent. {To be fair, we talked about Jesus A LOT, but it was without any form or organization.} Our Christmas countdown petered out around day four. There were no gingerbread houses, candy cane reindeer, or peppermint play dough. We made one batch of cookies and one batch of fudge {so I could stuff my pregnant face with chocolate…}. There was, however, an excessive amount of television and yelling. And I felt awful. Guilty parent, my-child-will-remember-this-in-therapy, not-enough-Jesus awful.

The expectations that come with celebrating Christmas are overwhelming. Whether you celebrate a nonreligious month of cheer or a fully Christ centered countdown to His birth …. it’s overwhelming. And it is supposed to be joyful, but this year more than in years past, I was reminded that for many, it is a time of increased discouragement, intense loneliness, gut wrenching grief, and forced separation from the ones you love.

And then, AND THEN, I watched with heaving sobs as twenty six families were shattered on national television. For days afterwards, I climbed in bed with the babes, tears leaking out, squeezing them tight and tucking them in. Broken in pieces for the parents who could no longer do the same.

How can I be joyful? Well, I’ll be honest. Joy isn’t what poured out … but peace. I’ll take peace.

The angel promises the shepherds in Luke 2:10, … good news of great joy that will be for all the people.”

We don’t just celebrate a Birth. We celebrate victory over death, over sin. We celebrate a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, the Prince of Peace {from Isaiah 9:6}.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. His peace is not as the world gives … is unable to give {from John 14:27}.

Peace to mend a broken heart, a broken marriage, peace to bind the wounds of our shattered lives. Peace to calm a grieving mother as she watched her Son die slowly on a cross.

Beloved, celebrate the Prince of Peace. Joy will come in the morning.

Happy New Year.

~M.

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