I don’t know how to make the uncomfortable comfortable, never mind joyful, which is what Christmas by all rights ought to be.

For you, for me, for all of us – by all rights Christmas ought to be not just comfy and cozy, but down-in-your-bones joy-filled.

But you know, we both know it isn’t always.

We know that sometimes it isn’t even all that comfortable, no matter how much we dress it up.

They say that one in three of us will travel this holiday season to see family. “They” being AAA. That’s 112.5 million folks, and I’m kinda willing to bet that not everyone packing a bag or a car is thinking stress isn’t coming along for the ride.

And if this is you, this holiday?

If you’ve packed your bags and made those reservations but you still have reservations about all of this happy-holiday-family-stuff that you know from past experience isn’t really gonna be all Hallmark?

And if you’re going anyway?

Can I just whisper this loud enough for your heart to hear?

You’re amazing. And brave. And wonderful.

And maybe no one around that Christmas table is gonna tell you so, but I’ll tell you so – Christmas can be hard, and you’re beyond a hero for showing up when you know it’s gonna be.

You’re beyond a hero for doing the hard work of biting the tongue when your convictions are pulling at you all wolf-like, beyond a hero for bringing your gifts and your smile and your kids and your best efforts at peace.

Beyond a hero for showing up, when the easier thing to do is just not show at all.

But you show up, because you know.

“Sticking with your family is what makes it a family.” (~Mitch Albom)

You know that loving the least of these sometimes means loving the least-loving of these.

You know that the least-loving of these are the ones who need the most loving of all.

You show up, because you know that really and truly, Christmas is about Christ, no matter how commercialized us 21st century folk try to make it.

You show up, because you know that Christmas is really and truly about His birth and how He took on skin and poverty and the cross for the least of us and the best of us and for all of us.

And for the least-loving of us, who need the most loving of all.

And if this is you, this holiday?

Maybe no one around that Christmas table is gonna tell you so, but I’ll tell you so –

You’re amazing. And brave. And wonderful.

~xo,
LuAnne