Christmas Eve of 2009 was one that most Oklahomans won’t soon forget. That year we got one of the worst blizzards in our recent memory. Parts of Oklahoma City would get more than 10 inches of snow with wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour and snow drifts that were more than three feet tall. For an area that isn’t used to getting more than a dusting of snow, this was a big deal.
A state of emergency was declared, highways began to be shut down, cars were left abandoned all over the roads as they got stuck in the snow, and it quickly became obvious that this Christmas Eve would look different than any other in my life. We had always gone to Christmas Eve Candlelight Services at St. Luke’s. After worship, we would usually go to my grandparents’ house where we would have our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of chili and tamales followed by drinking apple cider while we opened Christmas presents.
As churches all around the area began to announce they would be closing and we realized we would not get to experience the Christmas Eve Candlelight Service that year, we went ahead and made the trip over to my grandparents’ house to have dinner and open gifts together. It was certainly a different Christmas Eve than we had anticipated, but in the end, it is one I look back on with fondness and one I will always remember.
The whole story of Christmas reminds us that things may not always go the way we expect or plan. It certainly wasn’t how Joseph and Mary expected they would celebrate the arrival of their first child. It wasn’t how you would expect the Lord of all to arrive in the world in a lowly manger. Yet, it’s the perfect story to remind us that God can bring hope in the most unlikely of circumstances.
This Christmas may find you in a place of grief, fear, loss, or struggles. It may find you in a place of joy, excitement, hope, and love. Whatever the case may be, we hear that good news at Christmas that even when things aren’t exactly the way we thought they would be, in the midst of all of our hopes and fears, dreams and expectations, losses and joys, Christ comes to be with us. It is the good news at Christmas that because of the birth of a baby in Bethlehem, the light continues to shine in the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it.
Rev. Josh Attaway, Edmond Campus Pastor
