Lonely Christmas Night

I stretch my back and stop for just a moment, looking at the sign. I had gone 2 miles and still had one more mile to go. I readjusted my book bag and started off. It was Christmas week and all had gone wrong. My car was in the shop, I lost my phone on the bus and in the evenings I had to walk 3 miles to catch the closest bus. I was tired, cold and nearly in tears. Without a car I would not make it to the annual Christmas Eve party with my aunts, uncles, & cousins, in a way I was sadden at it all. I was too broke to give even a small gift to my niece and even thought for the first year in history I actually had all my Christmas cards delivered on time, I really wasn’t in the Christmas mood.

A car flew by honking there horn made me jump, even though the horn was not directed at me a flood of tears came rushing down my face. I had no desire to wipe them away and let them fall on my scarf as I tried to snuggle down lower into its warmth. At that moment I wish this week would just be over.

I had never wished that, I usually was the one bouncing around during the holidays. I was the one wanting to put up lights, decorating everything, buying gifts, wrapping each one and adding a special touch to each. There were the Christmas songs that I knew by heart & sang on the top of my lungs, I loved the plays no matter how corny or silly. There I was wallowing in self-pity because I had to walk in the cold only three miles, that I wasn’t with family even though I saw them several times a week, and without a phone to call anyone to add company to my misery.

It occurred to me at that moment, Joseph & Mary. Mary was pregnant and very far along and they had to walk everywhere. Joseph had to travel and protect his family and fend for them as they went. They had to travel many miles to the city of David, Bethlehem. They had no family or friends to welcome them when they arrived. They had no warm bed to sleep in, or good food to eat. Instead they had a dirty barn that they shared with animals.

Mary was to give birth. She had no help from her family, no one to celebrate the birth. She only had a bewildered husband. She was giving birth to not just any child but the Messiah. The King of kings and Lord of lords, he was God Almighty wrapped in the form of a child. This child deserved the best, the best doctors, the finest silks, and a royal crown placed on is small brow, but instead he had a manger, rags for clothes and hay to keep him warm.

It was not a Silent Night; dirty Sheppard came running into the city nearly insane with the sight they had beheld in the sky. Wise men came trotting following a star. Mary & Joseph had complete strangers celebrating the birth of their child. They were led to leave the city and go to Egypt. They would not go home to celebrate the birth with family either, they would have to flee for the sake of their first born.

I can imagine that the very first Christmas had to be a very lonely time for them, for Joseph & Mary. Many tears must have fallen during that time; the loneliness must have overwhelmed them. Here I was upset I had to only walk 3 miles before getting on to a warm bus, traveling to my good job where I would have a free warm lunch.

There was more, Joseph & Mary had something more, they weren’t alone. In fact they had the greatest gift ever. They were not alone; they had their creator living right with them. They got to hold him in their hands. Tears just stream down my face as I walked. See you never alone at Christmas, no matter where you are or what happening. In a crowded room, by yourself at home or walking three miles to the nearest bus stop in the cold. You see when the first Christmas happens, it was Emmanuel that came, which means God with us. When you have Jesus in your life, you can never be alone any day and especially not on Christmas day.