The Yeagleys have the Hallmark Channel now. Just in time for Christmas. You know what that means, don’t you? Hours upon weeks upon months of Christmas movies.
The lonely find love. Broken families are fixed. Hurts are healed. Tears are dried. The cute girl always gets the handsome guy. Magic is in the air — they say. And my favorite — it always snows at the end of the movie!
If only that happened in real life.
As Christmas nears, I think about those I know and love. Times are challenging for many. A mother has died from Alzheimer’s. Someone has lost their job. A fight with breast cancer is just beginning. A dad has died. Kids are estranged from parents. A marriage is crumbling. Cancer is attacking. Parents are worrying about kids. Bones are broken. Hearts hurt. Worries repel sleep. Faith is fading.
From where I sit the handsome guy in the Hallmark movie is AWOL. Problems aren’t being fixed. No miraculous healings (yet). And with Christmas just days away — there’s no hope for snow. The Hallmark Channel isn’t calling to turn our lives into a movie — at last not mine.
But last night I saw a Hallmark movie that “got it.” I don’t remember the title. A dad abandons his wife and three kids who leave home and land in a small mountain town. They are penniless, out of work and desperate. Bouncing from hotels to cheap rentals, the mom struggles to put food on the table with her meager waiter salary. Okay . . . there’s a cute sheriff, a gruff old teddy bear of a man, and wonderful small town folk. Sure, it’s vintage Hallmark schtick! But at the end of the movie, the cute sheriff (who likes the waiter-mom) appeals to his church family to encircle the struggling mom and her three kids. And on the sidewalk outside the home they renovate for the mom (yes, it was snowing), one of the church ladies reminds everyone that God needs folk on earth to reach hurting people.
Now, listen to what a fellow by the name of Isaiah recommended to his friends. “If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places — firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.” Isaiah 58:9-12 MSG
Are you struggling as Christmas nears? Are the challenges and fears daunting? Are you worried about friends and family? Are the Christmas lights dim this year? Look back at what Isaiah said — “start giving yourselves to the down-and-out . . .” Then look what happens. Your life will begin to glow in the darkness. Your shadowed life will be bathed in sunlight.
That “glow” comes from only one source. David, another fellow who was familiar with dark times, said, “You will light my lamp; The Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.” Psalms 18:28 NKJV. And when He shines His Light on us, Paul challenges us (most likely from a prison cell) to “walk as children of light.” Ephesians 5:8 NKJV.
Back to that Hallmark movie for a moment. As the credits rolled, everyone stood together in the beautiful snow — those in need and those who met the need. They were all glowing. They were all bathed in the same Sonlight.
Are you hurting or scared this Christmas? Give yourself to someone else that hurts. Are you worried about someone in your life that’s hurting? Give yourself to that person. Enter their pain.
Your life will begin to glow. You will be bathed in the Light of a Baby in Bethlehem.