When It’s Not the Hap, Happiest Season of All

Because of a family illness, I need to take a break from blogging. I hope to be back to writing in January, and I wish you all . . . not a merry Christmas, exactly, but a deep joy no matter what your life feels like right now.

shutterstock_116171299It’s 8 a.m. and I’m sitting in a donut shop in Galesburg, IL. The animatronic Santa directly behind me occasionally bursts into a tinny rendition of “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” then collapses into blissful silence just when I am about to smack him.

My mom just phoned to wish me a happy birthday. It chokes me up that my birthday is the first thing she remembered when she woke up this morning, because she is very ill in the hospital. Today we are waiting on some important test results that should give us a better picture about how far her cancer has spread, and what the immediate future might hold.

Advent is a time of waiting, but this kind of waiting is the worst of all.


I’m sorry I have not been blogging. Because of Mom’s illness I am taking a break from blogging (and a lot of other things) for the rest of December so I can be with her.

Oh, crap. Now Amy Grant is on the radio here at Spud-Os, singing that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. The hap, happiest season of all.

I love Amy Grant, but I am now wearing my noise-canceling headphones because I really can’t stand one more dose of holiday cheer.

But no matter what the news is today or next week or next month, I do know one truth: God is good. All the time.

There is such a thing as joy that transcends circumstance. There is a love that lives beyond all that we know here, all that we do. And sometimes we are lucky enough to be born to a mother who shows that love.

I hope to be back to writing in January, and I wish you all . . . not a merry Christmas, exactly, but a deep joy no matter what your life feels like right now.


The Christmas image is used with permission of Shutterstock.com.

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