The Best Worst Christmas Ever

Christmas Memories 5

Today marks the anniversary of my mother's passing. But please don't think this post is going to be a "downer." On the contrary, though that Christmas some eighteen years ago was the worst Christmas my brother and I will ever experience, it morphed into perhaps the best one anyone could have planned.

I didn't have the same plans that God did for that Christmas. My father had passed away three months earlier, and my greatest desire was to make this first Christmas without dad a good one for mom.

The baking and gifts that I planned to take north with me were done when I got the call to tell me that mom had suffered a massive heart attack. I wondered if I would make it home in time to see her. All night on the bus (the only way I could make the trip north just days before Christmas) I willed the driver to go faster. When I arrived at the hospital direct from the bus station, mom actually looked good. By the afternoon, she was failing and shortly before suppertime, she entered eternity.

In the days that followed I realized that my plans for a special Christmas with mom paled in comparison to the special Christmas the Lord had in mind for her. She was now free, whole, with dad, and best of all, with Jesus. What could be better than that!

Christmas isn't wrapped in sadness as it was those first few years after mom died. Now it's wrapped in sweet anticipation. Jesus came so that someday I could be reunited with those who loved Him here and now wait for me there.

There is no better Christmas present than that reminder.

Comments

  1. Lori Stanley Roeleveld22 December 2009 at 15:41

    Beautiful -written with a heart set on eternity.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dixie Phillips22 December 2009 at 19:04

    Beautiful post, dear friend. You've strummed on my heartstings again.

    ReplyDelete

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