The broken festivities of the first Christmas
This year, like many other people, I couldn't go home for Christmas. It was my first Christmas away from home. The winter is also cold and snow-less where I am, which is the worst weather combination. I'm thankful though that a family at church invited me over to have lunch with their family on Christmas Day. Experiencing this rather sombre Christmas, coming at the end of an awful year that still hasn't ceased to be awful, I've got to peel away the candy wrapper of my childhood Christmasses and notice how little of the night of Jesus's birth matched the tinseled festivities we've grown familiar with. There was a lot of pain beyond Mary's labour that night long ago, which even marshmallows in hot chocolate would not have remedied. This variance between the darkness of that night and the joy it still rightly inspires, gives Christmas a deep, meaningful glow that we've had the opportunity to reclaim this year. The first Christmas was away from home I...