Dear Mom,
Everyone is putting up Christmas decorations early this year.
This week I put the annual Christmas poinsettias on your headstone. I used the
gold shimmery kind that you loved. You never followed the trends in fashion or
décor, but just stayed with what YOU liked. I can appreciate that about you
now. You’ll be happy to know that gold and silver and white are all the rage on
Christmas trees, so you would be setting the trends now.
We are decorating early because it’s been kind of a stinky
year and we want it to be over and we want the holiday cheer to overtake any
blues that have hung around. January and February weren’t so bad. In fact, in
retrospect, they were pretty awesome! None of us knew at the time how great the
simple things like New Year resolutions and Valentine’s dinners could be. We used
those two months to unpack and settle after a big move to be near our three
grandbabies. Your youngest great grandkids out of a DOZEN, Mom! I wish like
crazy that you could see them. Or can you? I’ve never been real sure whether
you get that heavenly vision immediately or later.
But I digress. Right after this better-than-we-knew January/February,
we rolled into March and BAM!. Right after your birthday, a pandemic began
swirling the globe and it hasn’t stopped yet. To make it worse, people are
arguing about it. As much as I miss you, I’m kind of glad you and Dad aren’t
here. We would be so worried about you. Our kids worry about us now, because unlike
you, we have aged twenty years since you left!
On top of the pandemic, 2020 has torn at us in other ways too. Racial injustices still exist and are still
denied. We had our sixth presidential election year since you moved on and this
one was particularly divisive. Differences of opinions are now shouted from the
electronic megaphones of social media. You would hate the drama, but you would love
the baby pictures posted by all your friends.
Everyone can agree that we are ready for 2020 to be history. We
have all been in the same storm, but we have not all been in the same boat. Life
on our boat has been comfortable and happy, but others have navigated the worst
of times. You lived through some worst of times in your life and I know that
our 2020 year has nothing on you. But you still always celebrated.
So we prepare for celebration. Because if we start
celebrating now, we prevent our hope from deferring. Proverbs 13:12 says “Hope
delayed makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” And we
are tired of sick hearts.
We aren’t delaying hope a minute longer. Hang the mistletoe!
Put the angel on top of the tree. Remember that the Christ child was born to become
our very hope. Remedy our hearts with hope. No more deferring. No delaying. Our
hope is here and now in Him and Him alone.
