Christmas Time

At this festive time of year, we enjoy parties, service projects, and grand times with decorations, food, and people. We go to other people’s houses, and bring others to our houses. The idea is to be festive, and the more the merrier.

While we are being festive, it is easy to overlook the people for whom the holidays are not a time of joy, but rather of grief, of loneliness and painful reminders. Christmas is a time to be with family and friends, and anyone who has lost a loved one feels the pain even more at times when they should be together.

This is the case for many of our residents. They are displaced from their homes and their families, and are disappointed with their place in life (they are, after all, living in a homeless shelter.) The holidays for them are a reminder of all the things and people they do not have.

We who work at the shelter consistently have seen that often our residents, rather than being cheered by people being festive around them, are reminded of their losses and their private pains and go away depressed instead.

Christmas is a season of Hope, a season to celebrate the Hope we have in Christ Jesus. Let us this season be “always ready to give an answer for the hope that we have. But let us do this with gentleness and respect.” (2 Peter 3:15, paraphrased)

As we think about how best to serve the needy and to show the love of Jesus this Christmas, let us look at the holiday from another’s eyes. We at the shelter are always so blessed by the amount of people who come out of the woodwork wanting to help bring a meal for Thanksgiving or bring presents for Christmas. These little gestures do a lot to make our little shelter a home, but as always at all times of year, the best way to really help a person and to effectively share our hope is to spend time with them, listen to their stories, share their pain. Sometimes a quiet, relaxing holiday with familiar faces is a better balm than grand parties with strangers.

Let us this Christmas be sensitive, “rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15) Let us do as Jesus would do and love as Jesus would love the lost and needy of this world.