What's Missing

December 10

---

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being “When will this be over?” and 10 being profound

peace and joy, where are you this Christmas season? As a child, Christmas was

magical. As I grew older and married outside my faith, there was no Christmas in

our home. When my daughter was 4, she and I celebrated our first Christmas.

Despite being part of “the perfect family”, I felt an overwhelming emptiness that I

could neither understand nor tolerate. I walked away from my marriage. That

December as I was rushing to get my daughter after an interview for a job I

desperately needed, I broke my neck in a car accident. I was released from the

hospital a week before Christmas and my mother dropped off a tree and a stand. I

struggled to set it up, not an easy task for one person on a good day, let alone with a

severe injury. I gave up and leaned the tree in a corner. My daughter colored

pictures from newspaper comics and glued them to ornaments cut from

construction paper. We made garlands from cranberries and popcorn. Online

shopping wasn’t an option. I can’t remember if we even had gifts. I do know it

marked a turning point. Christmas was back in my life, even though I still had not

realized my need for Christ.

In the years that followed, the exhaustion and stress were overwhelming. I hit a

level of brokenness that wouldn’t rate a 1 on this “Christmas scale” and at the lowest

point, I realized I simply could not go any further. At the suggestion of a coworker, I

asked God for forgiveness and to come into my life. It came from desperation,

without expectation. I was so wrong. The emptiness I’d been trying to fill was eased.

My circumstances were the same, but I began to experience peace and even joy. And

that is my prayer for you this Christmas, wherever you are on the scale of 1 to 10:

---

Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that

you may overflow with hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit