About Christmas Tensions & Joy

In 2019, Joy wrote the first line of this piece, and it really resonated with so many of us. I'd honestly almost forgotten about it, until one day when I was just starting to work on this year's Christmas Collection, and things felt particularly broken. And then I remembered Joy's sentiment, and I wrote these words:

Christmas is wide enough to hold big tensions –
Of pain and peace, Joy to the world,
But sorrow for all that is still broken.
The tension of waiting longing But knowing that
Christmas means that the Messiah has come,
Victory is His, And someday,
all will be made right,
In Jesus holy name.

Amen.

Something that the holidays tend to do is hold up a magnifying glass to our lives... Exposing the cracks, the missing pieces, the things that aren’t how we’d hoped. This can feel like salt in a wound especially if that reality is something you’re painfully aware of, holiday or not. My heart aches as I think back to Christmases trying to pretend that I wasn’t totally crushed and devastated. Christmases when Eva was in pain, holidays when we weren’t all together. "It’s just so unfair!" is how I felt like replying to anyone who said “Merry Christmas!” And I share that to say, I’ve been there. And I might end up there again – nothing in this life is certain. I wish I could fix it – to step in and hold your pain even temporarily to give you some relief. But since I can’t, I’m just here to encourage you in this reminder: Look for any small moment of joy – any opportunity to laugh, any moment of delight, no matter how small and fleeting. It might not be near enough to fix it, but may be the thing that gets you from one moment to the next, one day at a time.

Learning to hold two polarizing feelings at once is one of the best things I’ve learned for my mental and spiritual health – and it’s something I’m still learning every day. But if we can commit to holding the duality of life, to press in and experience both, our lives won’t be defined by the hard things, it will be defined by all the things we allow it to. It won’t be fair, but it can be good. God wastes nothing – this is a fact. I pray this print is a blessing to you and yours, and meet you right where you're at. You are seen and loved!

xo, lindsay

• you can purchase the Christmas Tensions & Joy downloadable print here. •