For many Christmas brings with it the stark recognition of being alone. Yes, alone. As the busyness of the holiday settles, and the crowds disappear, for some the silence can be deafening.
A reminder not of joy, but of a void. Perhaps created by a childhood absent of any Dickenson type memories, or perhaps a horrid reminder of lost love and a newer colder quieter normal, without that knock, that ring, or that touch. Whatever the reason the loneliness can be unbearable and heavy. Very heavy.
And you need not be physically alone to feel the depth of lonliness. Often in a crowded room filled with joy and noise a person may, for the first time, stand detached. Perhaps physically present, but unable to sense or feel the connection to surrounding festivities. For many reasons.
For those I offer a simple message, left softly and quietly upon the threshold of your solitude.
Despite the fearful disconnection you might feel, you are never alone. Never. Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is with you now as he is always. He is where you are, at all times and without fail. His consideration for the lost or neglected was evident from the very moment of his birth, and witnessed amid the lonliest of souls:
The account of the announcement of the birth of Jesus to the shepherds is one of the most hauntingly beautiful accounts ever written. The shepherds near Bethlehem were keeping watch over their flock by night. The night was dark and peaceful. Sheep-herding is a lonely occupation and a strenuous one. Grazing sheep range far and wide, and need constant watching lest they stray. Being defenseless creatures, they must be watched over by the shepherds, lest lions, bears, or wolves attack them while they sleep.
These shepherds, although humble men, were necessarily rough and tough men. They were almost constantly isolated; unused to the stir and excitement of city life. The account says they were “abiding in the field.” This was their home. Their roof was the vault of heaven. They lived under the stars. There was a sameness and monotony in their lives. Every day was the same. Day in and day out, in silence, broken only by the plaintive cries of the sheep, the rustle of the wind in the grass, and the occasional distant howl of the wolf. Nothing exciting ever happened. That is, not until that night.
Suddenly they saw the most glorious sight that human eyes ever beheld!—”the glory of the LORD shone round about them!” This was no ordinary glory. This was the glory of Jehovah God himself! There is no greater glory.
We do not know the exact form or dimension this glory took; but it was a most magnificent sight! Is it any wonder that “they were sore afraid?” Then came the reassuring voice of the angel of the Lord: “Fear not, for behold, I being you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people; for unto you is born, this day, in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10, 11).
We may think we may have witnessed something wonderful when we attended a great symphony concert or a grand opera performance, but these pale into miserable insignificance when compared with what followed the angels’ announcement that night: “A multitude of the heavenly host praising God!” We sometimes refer to the best music we know as “heavenly music.” This was real heavenly music! Real angelic voices that were exquisitely delightful to the human ear. That is what the entranced shepherds heard; shepherds to whom “nothing exciting ever happened!”
Why to Shepherds? - Why was all this wasted on those simple shepherds? Why was not so glorious an announcement made to the great religious leaders of the day?—to the chief priests, Pharisees, or scribes? Because this was a fine demonstration of God’s established principle: “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble” (James 4:6). These humble shepherds were willing and enthusiastic couriers of the Good News. They did not waste a moment to visit the child. They said, “Let us now go, even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass; which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger” (Luke 2:15, 16).
The sight of the holy child had a peculiar effect on these normally silent and taciturn shepherds. Their tongues were loosed. They talked! And how they talked! They went about, telling everyone they met the glorious things they had seen and heard and about the wonderful child to whom they had been led. We read in Luke 2:17, “And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child.” What was the saying to which they referred? They would never forget that angelic voice and those wonderful words spoken for as long as they lived:
“Fear not; for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born, this day, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
In their enthusiasm the shepherds told many people. Then the record says: “All they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds” (Luke 2:18). The record continues, “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart” (v. 19). She treasured everything said about Jesus; and she would remember them in all the days to come……
He stands beside you. His reach is within you. You are never alone. Call out to him and feel his spirit fill you. Cry out to him and feel his spirit move you. You are never alone. You are blessed. You matter. You are a child of God, no less than the trees and the stars, and you have every right to be here…… right here, with him.
Merry Christmas
Beautiful, SD. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Thank you, Sundance. That touches my heart today. Merry Christmas to you and all the Crackers
Thanks, Sundance. That is beautiful. Life can seem lonely sometimes.
For so many years, I felt alone in the midst of the crowds…this is truly wonderful. Reposted in hopes I can help make it go viral.
Merry CHRISTmas, one and all!!
What a truly wonderful and oft’ forgotten message. As Dickens said, if the Christ Child would only be allowed to live in our hearts not just one day, but all year ’round, we would know the joy of never being alone. Thank you! And Merry Christmas!
Lovely! Thanks, and Merry Christmas!
Awesome SD…thanks for this!
This might be a good thread for this reminder, from GFCINTHATORDER:
Wow Grunt you are like magic. Someday I will try and do this stuff myself.Maybe whenI grow up. Lol
And thanks again Ad-Rem
Excellent and thoughtful post SD! I have dealt with lonliness through much of my life but not the type you might think. I have a large family and many loved ones around me, how could I be posibly lonely? Well when it comes down to it, ones faiyhis a lonely trip that he/she takes here on earth. We walk with God by our sides and His Blessed Angels around us. But it is the decissions we makes as leaders that are for me the lonely burden that we can only share with God. I have no doubt that God has given me many great Blessings with His divine Light that He alone decides to share with us and in different ways. Each of us on different rungs of the ladder that ultimately lead to Himself. The ones we love help much of the time if they are like minded. Our Tree friends are a big help and I personally thank God for each and every one of them and the gifts they continue to share with us. To mimic above what our deaf Grunt posted, if we could just have Christ child in our hearts every day. Ahhh say it could be so. But when God shares His Light with us it comes with a cost. A burden we call LOVE. A choice we make. To care, to love, to be responsible for, to share with those you come in contact with the Light He has given each and every one of you. To share with Him the cross He chose, freely, because of a LOVE so strong He would die for every single one of us, individually. A lonely battle which we can vouch for when Christ called out to the Father in His humaness “Father why have You abandoneMe”. He was human and suffering the pangs of lonliness thay comes from a great burden He willingly suffered on account of His Great Love for Us. So remember that He is with us in our loneliness and continue shedding your tallents, never to be put under a bushell, with all of those souls we come in contact with and those we love dearly. Christ makes all things new! This is what makes Christmas such a Hopeful time. A promise from our God FULFILLED for you and me. So celebrate my fellow brothers and sisters this is our time! MERRY CHRISTMAS MY BLESSED TREE FRIENDS!
Thanks to SD for the post. Prayers for my MIL on her first Christmas without her husband.
Merry Christmas to all Treepers and family. To quote a famous musical duo… “Be excellent to each other”.
Christmas 1941 address by Sir Winston Churchill…………….
Washington, D.C.
Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, Churchill went to Washington with his chiefs of staff to meet President Roosevelt and the American military leaders and coordinate plans for the defeat of the common enemy. On Christmas Eve Churchill broadcast to the world from the White House on the 20th annual observation of the lighting of the community Christmas tree.
I spend this anniversary and festival far from my country, far from my family, yet I cannot truthfully say that I feel far from home. Whether it be the ties of blood on my mother’s side, or the friendships I have developed here over many years of active life, or the commanding sentiment of comradeship in the common cause of great peoples who speak the same language, who kneel at the same altars and, to a very large extent, pursue the same ideals, I cannot feel myself a stranger here in the centre and at the summit of the United States. I feel a sense of unity and fraternal association which, added to the kindliness of your welcome, convinces me that I have a right to sit at your fireside and share your Christmas joys.
This is a strange Christmas Eve. Almost the whole world is locked in deadly struggle, and, with the most terrible weapons which science can devise, the nations advance upon each other. Ill would it be for us this Christmastide if we were not sure that no greed for the land or wealth of any other people, no vulgar ambition, no morbid lust for material gain at the expense of others, had led us to the field. Here, in the midst of war, raging and roaring over all the lands and seas, creeping nearer to our hearts and homes, here, amid all the tumult, we have tonight the peace of the spirit in each cottage home and in every generous heart. Therefore we may cast aside for this night at least the cares and dangers which beset us, and make for the children an evening of happiness in a world of storm. Here, then, for one night only, each home throughout the English-speaking world should be a brightly-lighted island of happiness and peace.
Let the children have their night of fun and laughter. Let the gifts of Father Christmas delight their play. Let us grown-ups share to the full in their unstinted pleasures before we turn again to the stern task and the formidable years that lie before us, resolved that, by our sacrifice and daring, these same children shall not be robbed of their inheritance or denied their right to live in a free and decent world.
And so, in God’s mercy, a happy Christmas to you all.
Merry Christmas, fellow treepers.
I posted that because I find it compellingly appropriate to the time and situation in which we find ourselves today.
Thanks, Sol! “world of storm,” indeed.
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Wow. OK that was just about the most incredibly moving thing I have read in a long time. Thank you so much for posting that Churchill speech. Incredible how now seventy years to the night later those exact same words ring just as true.
Thank you, and indeed Merry Christmas.
Amen…
Thank you, Sol. God help us, we need plainspoken men with clear hearts to say such straight and strong things.
Amen!
Sundancecracker,
What a touching, lovely message you have conveyed.
I, personally, find that the more I am surrounded, the lonlier I become.
Lonliness comes in so many forms. Thank God… we have God, our Savior.
May the Light of our Lord continually shine upon all… the believers and also the disbelieving, throughout eternity.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Merry Christmas. Glad you stopped here at the Tree to share it with us.