|
Sunny Side Up with Kathleen Gibson Dec.3, 2008 Not in the Christmas mood? Celebrate anyway I heard Christmas music in Pimento�s restaurant as we brunched with friends last week. It seemed so strange. I�d barely noticed Christmas advancing. The Preacher and I have been too immersed in the backwash of the Nile (West Nile Neurological Disease). �We�re not doing much for Christmas,� I said. �Life is too complicated right now.� I�m not alone. �I�m not sending gifts this year�I just can�t,� Gerry (my mother-in-law) told me. Of course she can�t. Illness has ravaged her daughter, the Preacher�s younger sister. Last summer, Barb�s colon ruptured. Within hours doctors placed her on life support. Blood clots generated a stroke that paralyzed her entire left side and necessitated the removal of a good portion of her skull. Lack of circulation persisted. A tumult of medical horrors forced the amputation of her good right leg. The Preacher travelled East, funeral message in hand. Miraculously, Barb lived. She�s had more major surgeries than the entire family combined�for generations. A photo shows the shaved right side of her head, patched with large blanket stitches. No right ear is visible. The operations have prolonged her life, but Barb may never go home again. Christmas? Do you blame Gerry for not wanting to fuss over wrappings and tinsel? I don�t. Christmas as commonly celebrated contrasts horribly with people�s genuine needs. Hospitals and care facilities house numerous people like Barb. Psychiatric institutions operate to capacity. People kill each other with abandon�even glee. The deflated economy punishes our global greed. Through the streets of the world, sadness stalks on stilts, keeping pace with the demon of despair. More stuff, more gaiety�spider webs all�won�t help. They never have. People need a savior able to adjust hearts and offer eternal hope. It wasn�t Christmas music that reminded me of the relevance of Christmas to our beleaguered world. Nor the fresh snow, or ramped-up church programs. It was the verse I repeat each time one of my grandchildren lifts the gold cross around my neck and holds it, waiting for the response that has come since their infancy. Tabatha did that just the other day. At first I didn�t notice her tiny fingers caressing the filigree. �God loved the rurld, Nana,� she whispered, prompting. �Oh, yes, he does, baby girl! For God SO loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoEVER believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3: 16.� She echoed the reference, grinning. �That�s what the BIBLE says!� we finished. Last night, I hung two strings of blue lights on the wheelchair ramp and placed a lighted angel on the front lawn. The lights remind me of stars, and the angel of those that once appeared in the night sky to a bunch of lower-downs. People struggling with life, like you and me. �Fear not�glad tidings�great joy�unto you is born a Savior. Jesus Christ. � The Preacher and I celebrate that this year. Will you join us? �2008, Kathleen Gibson Respond Home |
 |