Not This Christmas

Our boys will not be home this Christmas.

I think I have cried it all out and I have broken the news to three disappointed siblings ... but I was touched today when around the dinner table as we shared what we are grateful for, Eva said she was grateful that even though Ian and Alec won't be here for Christmas, they will be here "very, very soon."

I love her hope and faith.

At this time of year, as we celebrate the Savior's birth, those two qualities are more precious than ever. It is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His saving grace that we have the hope of eternity in our hearts. And it is by faith in God's sovereignty that we have the hope that though we may have to wait awhile longer, someday we will have Ian and Alec at home.

All around us here in Chile we are rubbing shoulders with those who are caught up in the busyness and craziness of Christmas but who for whom the true meaning of the season is lost. That should not be true of us because we are blessed to know the truth; yet in the bitterness of my disappointment over the boys not coming home that is exactly where I found myself.

But no more.

Not this Christmas ... No, this will not be the Christmas to celebrate two little boys coming home, but it will be the Christmas to celebrate one baby boy who left home to come live among us.

Not this Christmas ... No, this will not be the Christmas to stuff five red stockings full of gifts, but it will be the Christmas to enjoy the three gifts already given to us: Eva, Isabel and Owen, whose joy and excitement make us smile.

Our boys will not be home this Christmas, but this Christmas we will hang on to hope, and hold fast to faith.

And we will most certainly "Rejoice! For the Savior has come."