"Now in the quiet that is Christmas I am among those standing vigil beside the manger – in awe that because of that beautiful baby I will see Catherine again."
-Mother of Catherine Hubbard, one of 20 children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012
This December has been one marked by a heavy and burdened heart. My heart breaks for the people of Tacloban who lost everything in the largest recorded typhoon in history. It breaks for Joseph, the loving, smiley 9 year old abandoned by his mother and left fatherless by the storm. It breaks for my community at home who on December 14th marked one year since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It breaks for the 26 families in CT and the thousands of families in the Philippines who are incomplete this Christmas.
In the midst of this sorrow celebrating Christmas seems vastly out of place. To begin a morning of relief work in Tacloban city singing Christmas carols feels meaningless and empty.
Until I read the words of Catherine Hubbards mother. Until I realize that on the heels of this sorrow and darkness come the celebration of the arrival of a baby in a manger, God With Us, the arrival of hope. And it is in this hope, the hope of Christ, the hope so beautifully captured in the words of Catherine's mother, in the heartfelt worship of a Filipino woman as we drive through the devastation of Yolanda, in the smiles that we find all over Tacloban and in the signs that proudly proclaim "THERE IS HOPE IN CHRIST" and "JESUS IS THE ANSWER," the hope that comes from a baby born in a manger, that I will celebrate. For to celebrate Christmas in the midst of heartbreak is neither empty nor out of place. Rather the Christmas celebration is a poignant and timely celebration of His love, a reminder that He is the light in the darkness, that this is not the end, and that there is a day coming when he will wipe every tear from our eyes, and death will be no longer for the old will have passed away and the new will have come. It is this hope that anchors my soul in the waves of sadness and causes me to rejoice with all my heart this Christmas.
