As I stood in what seemed to be a snail\u2019s pace going through a Hobby Lobby check-out line, I couldn\u2019t help but notice this jammed-packed “Christmas” store. Shelves upon shelves of every color of Christmas you would want \u2013 white, pink, blue, green, turquoise, or traditional red. And every style you would want \u2013 country, contemporary, Grinch, seaside, or traditional. But even more to revel in was the number of people there, without masks, and certainly not social distancing. This is not 2020. Thank God! Not that we still don\u2019t take precautions amid the virus concerns that remain.
In that line, I had time to reflect on the difference of 2021\u2019s Christmas and 2020’s. Remember? Many families stayed home at Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2020 to avoid spreading the virus. Christmas wasn\u2019t cancelled, but for many, it felt like it. We were still wearing masks habitually and kept our distance from people outside our family units. Those who normally headed over the river and through the woods to grandmother\u2019s house \u2013 didn\u2019t go because they didn\u2019t want to inadvertently give grandma COVID. Christmas caroling was a way to spread the virus, so even caroling came to a screeching halt.
Traditional, festive holiday parties were cancelled. Christians missed the sights and sounds of Christmas pageants and of gathering in sacred space to mark that holy time. There was even six feet of social distancing from Santa and his guests at malls \u2013 and those Santa photos? Santa and the kids wore masks. Here are photos I found from 2020\u2019s Santa photos: bubbles, drive-bys, and virtual visits. This year my friends are posting their Santa photos with the children closely surrounding Santa. They are so happy to have their traditional Santa photos again.
Yes, there was a lot to mourn last year. Too many people we knew passed on because of Covid and we even watched their funerals online from afar. We missed the joy of being together with friends and loved ones; we missed hugs and cookie swaps and the sharing of holiday cheer. It all felt different because it was different.
I remember seeing the headline \u201cChristmas Canceled for Millions.\u201d But, then and now — that\u2019s not how Christmas works. As the classic Dr. Seuss story, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”, reminds us, Christmas can\u2019t be canceled.
The point of my blog today is no different than last year as I shared that Christmas is a state of being \u2013 being in the moment of the very essence of the celebration: love entering the world in human form. That love may show up in a stable, but it\u2019s up to us to bring that love into our own lives and then share it with the world. Love simply cannot be canceled.
Not that everything is perfect this year, we still don\u2019t live in a Hallmark Christmas movie where there is always a predictable and happy ending. But, still God sees our struggles and enters into them by walking right alongside us. God takes all that is not ideal in our lives \u2014 the loneliness, the brokenness, the fear, the heartbreak, the grief \u2014 and through relationship with us, transforms it into a loving, liberating, life-giving hope.
Wherever and, however, you celebrated Christmas last year and now this year when we are out and about more, I pray it will ultimately still be about love. Not the sentimental kind, but the transformative kind that triumphs over every fear. The kind that reminds us that God delights in us simply for who we are, even when we\u2019re feeling down or imperfect or overwhelmed. Because it\u2019s not just true that God loves us, it\u2019s the most amazing truth there is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So while things may still be different and you may still be social distancing from family and friends or you are reunited this year, nothing ultimately changes. Christmas in our hearts can be merry and bright when we realize that the Light of all Lights shines brightly and He never has or ever will social distance from us! Merry Christ in Christmas, dear friends!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As I stood in what seemed to be a snail\u2019s pace going through a Hobby Lobby check-out line, I couldn\u2019t help but notice this jammed-packed “Christmas” store. Shelves upon shelves of every color of Christmas you would want \u2013 white, pink, blue, green, turquoise, or traditional red. And every style you would want \u2013 country,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22291,22292],"tags":[1210,1769,251,22283,22284,22286,22287,22285,19923,571,22288,11519,39,40,18705,22290,503,16865,22289,17387],"class_list":["post-15268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-christmas-2020","category-christmas-2021","tag-blog","tag-christian","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-2020","tag-christmas-2021","tag-christmas-cancelled","tag-christmas-parties","tag-christmas-store","tag-dr-suess-2","tag-grinch","tag-hallmark-christmas-movie","tag-hobby-lobby","tag-hope","tag-inspiration","tag-masks","tag-merry-and-bright","tag-santa","tag-social-distancing","tag-transformative","tag-virtual"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15268"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15279,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15268\/revisions\/15279"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mypeacezone.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}