Slowly the outdoor Christmas decorations are going up. It’s been cold since Thanksgiving and we haven’t had many of those days where the sun is shining and the temperatures are driven up into the forties – temperatures which are ideal to put up outside Christmas decorations.
Maybe it’s just me but it seems like 2018 is rapidly leaving us with many unanswered questions. When will the stock market find a real bottom and stocks start edging higher again? Will The United States and China find some common ground of agreement on tariffs? Will the political swamp of misinformation surrounding our Federal government ever get drained?
On a personal note, our family grieves this year over the loss of my sister-in-law Nancy Bupp to breast cancer and the loss of my grandson Cody Clarke to a totally unexpected cerebral hemorrhage. It was a day of horror as my daughter and her husband were celebrating Cody’s outstanding awards at the end of his seventh grade in school early one morning only to be called to the hospital in a couple of hours later to learn that Cody was on a ventilator. Why do these bad things happen? What did we do to deserve such tragedy? And in our circle of friends and family, they too have lost a parent or a one of their children this year. No warning, no goodbyes, just death and sadness.
And with our world in such turmoil, Christmas comes. It’s no accident that we celebrate Christmas at the end of the year. Just at the time when our afternoon daylight changes to the darkness of night, we hang out our Christmas lights to try to extend the light of day. But there is only one who brings us real hope: the birth of our savior Jesus Christ who brought with him a message of joy and hope. Why was our firstborn taken from us asks my daughter and her husband? There is no earthly answer. Our only hope is that if we believe in Jesus Christ, we will live forever with God our Father. We will meet again Nancy and Cody.
MERRY CHRISTMAS to all my family and fb friends.