I sit here at my desk on Christmas Day – the second day in a row where I’ve been home alone because of a sore throat/cough kind of cold.  I work hard at making sure I’m not alone during the Christmas holidays, but clearly this was out of my control.  It wasn’t long before I started piling up all my many “woes.”  Unfortunately, I can be really good at that.

Add to the loneliness of these hard days, the destruction wreaked by my sweet little puppy, Maisy, who thought it was a good idea to chew on the corner of my iPhone rending it useless except for the flashing green light displayed whenever I push a button.  Pretty sure this is going to be expensive…  Maybe Mom shouldn’t have left her phone on the couch.

Honestly, I was having one of those conversations I frequently have with God when things start falling apart.  You know the kind.  “Really God?  This, too?”  That’s how I felt on Christmas Eve as tears overtook my “self” control and I had a holiday meltdown.  I even joked to a friend that God must be giving me another blog post idea.

Be careful what you say!  I had a post ready to go when God redirected me once again.  As he does so often, he gave me some powerful lessons and insights BECAUSE of the heartache of those past couple of days.

Why must so many of our lessons come from the hard times?  As my sweet husband used to say, “Here’s the thing about life – you get the lessons AFTER the tests.”  Yep, true words.  But if we think about how God works, it makes complete sense that he would use my struggles this week to open my eyes (and maybe yours) to see areas of comfort through these tears. 

As you’ll see, even the multiple tearful meltdowns contributed to the lessons.  Here is how God changed my perspective and made my heart smile:

• Sometimes God gives us trials so his kindness can be displayed through the thoughtful acts of others.  In Ephesians 2:10, it tells us that God has created good works for us to walk in.  That’s exactly what played out on Christmas Eve Day when my pastor and his sweet family went above and beyond the initial task of picking up something for me at Target and buying me an in-home COVID test kit. (It was negative.)  I got soup and tea and a dog mug and roses and Christmas lights and a private showing of “O Holy Night” by their adorable 5-year-old daughter.  Talk about turning the narrative around!  Lots of smiles and warm fuzzies.
• We can be grateful that we have someone to cry over. When I couldn’t seem to stop the tears from flowing as I thought about all my loved ones that I was missing – Mom, Dad, Dale, Daisy and many others, this is the thought that came to me.  If I hadn’t been blessed with those life-long amazing relationships, I wouldn’t have been sitting there crying over their absences.  God reminded me of the blessing side of that equation.  The reason we grieve deeply is because we’ve loved deeply.
• Jesus came down to earth as fully man and fully God to assure that I will never carry this heartache into eternity.  As I sat there with tears running down my face, grieving the losses and broken relationships and sickness and so much more, it hit me that this tiny baby came to earth to fix all that brokenness  and offer to us a perfect, sinless eternity if we put our trust in him.  When he hung on that cross 33 ½ years after his birth, he knew the specific heartaches I would struggle through.  He knew your heartaches, too. And his sacrificial death assures us that, as believers, we will not take any worldly troubles with us when we die.

That’s not a bad list, is it?  The heartaches pale in comparison to the blessings today and into eternity.  God allowed this pity party of mine so that I could more clearly see that contrast, and be grateful for his love and kindness towards me during those hard holiday moments.

He wants the same for you.  I’m not naïve enough to think you all had Norman Rockwell Christmases.  We ALL have some kind of heartache we’re dealing with.  I pray that the lessons shared here can help you, too, gain a new heavenly perspective.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us

an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 

as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.

For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

2 Corinthians 4:17-18