The Look of Love and Pain.....

To begin to explain I really need to start where it always begins…..with a look.  I was sitting there and wondering what wonder I saw in her eyes.  She was so loved and happy and yet there was something I desired to know.  She was a women in her late 30’s with brown hair and wore casual clothes.  She sat with her legs crossed and a smile on her face.  She watched intently as her children came running to tell her something important.  They were 5, differing in ages but wearing tattered hand-me down clothes.  She waiting patiently for each one to give her their version of surprise.  I thought to myself, what a women, to show such love and devotion to so many and yet not to be short or impatient after so much time.  She smiled as they continued the tale and seemed to giggle along with the youngest version on “Silent night”.  I longed to see this family as they opened the gifts on Christmas morning.   Little did I know there was pain to await them.  She picked up the youngest in her arms as they walked out of my sight.  They all got into a large van and begin to leave church.  You always wonder about the family that looks like they have it all together, the kids are happy, the parents put together and content.  In most of our lives, they look like the Cleavers.  We might be jealous, or maybe a bit naive but we see only what our eyes and mind want us to see.  That very night, they were traveling home there was a sight to behold.  A great light shown in the East as most astronomers would tell you.  As history tells us, it was that same light that Mary and Joseph would have seen as they looked out the manger.  The night that He came to our earth to show us the great love and peace he has for us, the sinner.  As this happy family drove on, they reached the town they called home and went to bed.  Just as Mary has such love and devotion for her child in the manger, so did this mom have such love and a tender heart. Just as God had said it would be in the scriptures, it was foretold that this child would be born under that star and his future was laid out before all knew the end.  He was to die on a cross, with a love for these people who crucified him.  This boy would change our minds and set our hearts to God.  He was to live here but a mere second, a short moment in time, and change our thoughts of love and devotion.  As this mother of 5, was to set out on a journey that would bring her close to such a moment.  She knew nothing of this fate or pain, she was loved and devoted to her kin.  She was full of joy and knew nothing of such pain and loss.  This mother, Faith, was born to mere man and women and had know some pain in her life.  Faith was a person who had persevered and knew what love was.  She planned for a festive holiday with present galore.  She made the meal and blessed this food.  She said good night  and tucked them all in.  Just as Mary would have tucked her son into his bed.  But the world knew nothing of their fates, what God had planned before it was to be a thought in our minds.  God saw the great that was to come from such a tragedy, he knew that love would fill the earth and the heavens would rejoice.  The child’s name was Hope and she was filled with life.  She was the apple of her parent’s eyes and made it know that she was here.  She loved to dance, sing and swing.  She wanted others to know her love for anything pink. Hope loved to let her family know that she was in charge.  It happened one spring afternoon that Gods plan was set in motion.  Faith was to lose this child she loved so dear.  Just as Mary had lost her only child to a world that seemed so cruel and bitter, so did Faith lose the one whom she called her little one.  The pain and agony of loss a child so little and so dear is beyond what words can describe.  It starts with a simple tear that seems to never end.  The world stops for what seems like eternity and that same world you saw as happy and devoted shatters.  The friends and life’s memories seem to fade and you are left with broken memories and pictures that don’t seem real.  The last moment you spent with this child seems to be the only memory worth keeping.  The silent night is one that now seems to harsh to bear and you long for a moment to hold this child.  To live one day with Hope again and to be close to the one who lives with our God in Heaven.  I can’t begin to image how Mary felt as her only son, Jesus lay on that cross in pain and agony.  Still finding time to pray for another and give peace all in one breathe.  She wanted to take him off and hold him one last time.  To take all those people who sneer and shout at him away, and give him that love  and devotion she had always shown him.  I know that Faith felt some of that as she watched her child slip away from her grip.  She waits for that moment that Mary had as she saw Him again with a white robe as he came out of the tomb to greet his loved ones.  He was to rise again as foretold and to be seated at the right hand of the Father.  So to will Hope rise and be seated with her Father.  She  came to bring a message to us all, to not take any moment for granted and to live life to the fullest.  I have learned that even though people must return to our Father, we must cherish life and the blessing that He brings us.  We must take each moment and hold it close.  We must tell others of God’s love and the story of our Christmas birth.  He was sent to save us all, and she was sent to remind us of the Hope that resides in all of us. The glimpse of faith that  can rise up as we struggle through life’s little mysteries and the impatience child who needs to be pushed one more time on the swing shows us that even in a faded memory lies the one true meaning of the season…..peace, love and joy.  

This is a story of life lived through one family but seen through the eyes of many.