Home for Christmas

     13 years ago this month on December 12,  my wonderful Mama went home to be with the Lord.  It was sudden and totally unexpected so that first Christmas still seems bathed in an unearthly wash of numbness, sorrow... and yet hope.  Hope because in losing a loved one so close to the holidays, you can't help but reflect upon the simple fact: this is why He came.  He came to defeat the power of death and to conquer the sorrowful effects of this sin-scarred world upon His sometimes lost and lonely children.
     He came for children who lose their mamas.  And for parents who lose their children.  He came for the desperate and the despairing.  He came for us all--even in our indifference and ingratitude.   He entered this beautiful, but often broken planet, to redeem and restore.
     I so well remember looking up at the stars at night during those days and weeks after Mama's death and thinking, "Wonder what she is seeing right now?  These stars set in the black canopy of night, so beautiful and mysterious--she's finally seeing them as they really are.  She's viewing them from a whole new and perfect vantage point.  She's fully understanding.  And it must be glorious beyond words."
     And then I would thank the Lord that "Mama is truly home for Christmas."  Christmas in heaven.  Wow.  What must that be like?   To find home as it's always meant to be.  That true, deeper home we always seem to long for and never quite find.  Christmas in His Home, our real Home.
      Well, that is what I have been thinking about the last few days.  With very dear friends who have lost a loved one and with the unimaginable losses at Newtown, I keep pondering, "Lord, what are they seeing in heaven right now?  What wonders are they experiencing?  O to be truly home for Christmas!"
     It may not ease the pain much if you have lost someone near and dear to your heart, but somehow it has helped me the past few days to consider the glorious reality of where those children are now and the unimaginable wonders they are experiencing at this very moment.  Forever beyond all violence and restlessness and failure and suffering and sadness.
     Seeing Jesus face to face.
     Truly home for Christmas.
     Finally, finally, faith made sight.
     O glorious day.
     Lord, help those of us remaining here, in this "enemy-occupied territory," to recall even as we grieve, that this is why You came.  And that is why they are there... truly home for Christmas.  With You.  To God be the glory.