Skip to main content

Featured

How to have a truly happy new year.

For the first time in years, I don’t remember my New Year’s resolution from January. Usually, I write it down in my journal or on a note I stick to my mirror. There’s been many of those dog-eared sticky notes from years past. The year of contentment. Speaking life. We passed pancakes across the breakfast table on January 1st this year. “What do you want from 2018?” I can’t remember my answer. I know what I didn’t want though. I didn’t want to walk into her office and share the parts of my life I’m inclined to hide. I didn’t want to Facetime her the day after she delivered her baby that never breathed. I didn’t want to spend four months wondering how I’d walk into her house on Christmas day and see her empty chair. I didn’t want to go on another first date that led nowhere. We sit across from each other in a little coffee shop in Colorado, picking at a charcuterie board. “When I think about all of the things I have left to go through,” her voice cracks....

Take it all in

“Take it all in, guys. It’s one of those moments.” She inhales deeply.

We laugh at her, but I know she’s right.

The three of us link arms and walk down a trail through random Christmas light displays: snowmen having a snowball fight, penguins fishing, and a creepy mini toy shop.

We talk about the things we don’t regret about the past four years of university. We talk about the changes ahead, graduation looming.

I come home for Christmas: loved ones missing, relationships changing, and traditions disappearing.

Christmas accentuates how I have no control over time.

I write a list of future plans.

But I joke with him. “God alone knows what I’m doing next.”

Christmas accentuates one unchanging thing.

The baby in the manger. The Messiah.

Emmanuel. God is with us. Always, always with us. Last Christmas, this Christmas, and the next one.

“Take it all in,” she says.


Comments

Popular Posts