Not sure when the holidays turned into such a fiasco, rushing here and there and everywhere, just trying to keep peace with everyone.  Gifts galore, most returned to the stores.  Next year I am considering a cabin hideaway, with snow and roaring fireplace and sleigh rides…dream on.  It seems when you put two or more people together at a holiday you have dysfunction in any home in any city, inevitable.  If anyone is mad at anyone else, lines are drawn and sides are chosen, not a comfortable situation to say the least.  Throw in a few heartbreaks and you have got yourself a potentially dangerous situation…PDS as we call it, and someone is gonna blow.  One of the younger ones said late into the night, hey I wonder what it’s like inside other people’s homes and everyone was just real quiet.  Real quiet.

I like Christmas at the Krank’s home, very cool idea to skip it one year…a warm island getaway fills my stocking just fine.  This year, our family put on smiles and spoke words to cover the heartache we all felt from empty spaces at our table, children missing their mom, their grandmother mourning her second child taken, a husband torn with grief, siblings, nieces and nephews, all of us wrapping our sadness in pretty paper and bows bright and shiny.  

Expectations of the season fall short of the reality that befalls us….the difference leaves people empty.  In homes all across America disappointment hangs heavy over us as the 24 hours of Christmas comes and goes.  If we put our hope in the gifts we receive instead of the true gift God gave us all-our lives will be empty.

“Find rest, O my soul, in God alone, my hope comes from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; He is my fortress, I will not be shaken.”  Psalm 62: 5-6

“The Lord is my portion, saith my soul, therefore will I hope in Him.” Lamentations 3:24

The greatest gift we all have ever received is God’s son Jesus Christ, and even when He departed this world He left us another gift, the Holy Spirit to live inside us always until He returns.  What a King, what a giver of true gifts, what a reason to celebrate the season….thank you so much my Lord for filling my empty spaces with your love.