A Christmas blessing

Like so much in 2020, we experience Christmas today with an asterisk that declares “not how we wanted it.”

Travel and large gatherings aren’t advised. So, whether we normally play host or guest, we’ll play neither. Or we’ll gather in smaller groups, keeping six feet apart.

Or we’ll meet through that wonder called Zoom, a sterile substitute for human touch, especially hugs. When we’re denied physical contact with grandchildren or grandparents, our routine holiday rituals seem more like sacraments – and their loss a sacrilege.

Or worst of all, death. Christmas always tests those who must meet their first without a loved one. Covid-19 has swollen their number and compounded their burden by denying them the comfort of loving embrace.

So, not the Christmas we wanted. Our hurt is real. We’re allowed our anger, our pangs of loneliness.

But Christmas also signals potential. And with vaccines coming, we may find comfort in recasting today as a start – an Advent do-over, anticipation bound with hope, reflected in the image of a child. May this asterisked holiday thus become a blessing.

Merry Christmas.