The holidays are times for celebrating with family and friends. They are times of remembering, rejoicing, feasting, and for stopping our routine for a time to enjoy the company of  those we love.

For many, my family included,  the holidays can be a time of  sorrow, as we are reminded of a loved one who no longer sits at our table. The holidays can magnify those feelings of loss. Perhaps for some, the holidays bring back bad memories from times past. If we are separated from loved ones by distance, the loneliness can be magnified during the holidays until it becomes a physical ache of longing for the embrace of that loved one far away.

At times like these we often ask ourselves the why questions. Why my loved one? Why me? You know the questions we ask when we are hurting, and even angry with God. Many of those questions will go unanswered until we see Him face to face. But I do know this: I know He loves you and He loves me with an everlasting love. That means His love has no strings and He even loves us when we are angry with Him. I know His Word tells me that He has borne my sorrows. In other words, He takes my pain, sorrow and heartache upon Himself, He shoulders my pain. The Word of God tells us that His ways are not our ways. To put it simply, we cannot expect to have God’s perspective any more than we can expect a three year old child to understand everything her parents do. Have you ever tried to reason with a three year old while she crosses her arms and stomps her little foot in anger and disapproval? How did that work for you? Futile is the word that comes to mind, because the child and the parents have different perspectives. A child’s ways are not the ways of a parent. Just like God’s ways are not our ways.

We are never promised a life without sorrow on this earth. However, we are promised that He will never leave us alone. He will walk with us through anything this world throws at us. He will never leave us. Never. I am reminded of a passage in John chapter 6. In this passage, we are told that many of His followers were turning away from Him because of unbelief. Jesus turned to His disciples and asked them, “Do you also want to go away?” Peter answered Him by saying, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life…You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Where would we go indeed! Think about it! Look what has happened to our world in the hands of man. I simply cannot imagine the futility of traversing this life without Him. So, bottom line: whether I understand or don’t understand, I will choose Him. When the path is smooth I will walk with Him. And when the path is strewn with heartache and sorrow, I will take His hand and lean on Him, knowing that He is the way to eternal life. And I will choose this Holiday Season to rejoice in the celebration of His gift to us, The gift of Himself.

May this Blessed Season find us looking for His face

May we always be reminded of His mercy and His grace

May the telling of His birth, sent from the Father up above

Ignite again the wonder of His never failing love

© Sharon Coleman 2013