“More Than Muddle Through”
December 19, 2022
My musical diet from Thanksgiving until New Year’s Day consists mostly of Christmas songs, carols, and hymns. Admittedly, I lean towards a good melancholy melody, and one song rose to the top this year – Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas! The song encourages muddling through the difficulties of the present year, and allowing our hearts to be light because next year our troubles will be out of sight. One verse even suggests,
Someday soon we all will be together
If the fates allow
Until then, we’ll have to muddle through somehow
So, have yourself a merry little Christmas now
While listening to Sirius radio, this song kept surfacing and it struck a chord with me because I have been thinking about my family’s first Christmas without Dad. And I have been thinking about all the people I know who have lost loved ones this year, and as recently as today. Funerals will occupy their week leading up to Christmas.
We’ll have to muddle through somehow…a merry little Christmas…let your heart be light…next year your troubles will be out of sight…
Christmas can be a difficult season for so many people and for so many reasons – losing a job, losing a friendship due to relocation, losing a measure of good health. However, losing a loved one and then celebrating Christmas for the first time with an empty seat around the table, may top the list of reasons this merry holiday may not feel so merry. Christmas can potentially be a time of loneliness and hopelessness.
We’ll have to muddle through somehow…a merry little Christmas…let your heart be light…next year your troubles will be out of sight…
Our grief and sadness may cause us to think we have to muddle through somehow, and that we may only experience a merry little Christmas until next year, when the song says, all our troubles will be miles away. But who’s to say that next year our troubles will be out of sight? They may be, but then again, next year may hold troubles of its own. I don’t say this to be as melancholy as my musical taste, but rather to suggest a hopeful reality in the midst of our deepest sorrows this year.
The truth is, our troubles most likely will never be out of sight in any given year. God’s Word tells us that in this life we will have troubles, but to take heart –
In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. John 16:33
The sorrow in your heart, or my family’s sorrow of missing Dad this Christmas, does not have to be cause to muddle through somehow and only have a merry little Christmas. The fates’ allowance, or a year of waiting for our troubles to be out of sight, have nothing to do with how little or big, or hopeless or hopeful our Christmas can be. Our Christmas can be merry and joyful in the midst of our deepest heartache because love came down on Christmas, because unto us a Savior is born, because of what the name of Jesus means, and because of what He did for all mankind. We can rejoice in the good news of Christmas!
The good news of Christmas is that God brought hope to all people through the Baby who was born on that first Christmas. Jesus came in the flesh as a Baby so that He could bear the punishment for our sins at the Cross, and then conquer death by rising from the dead. The angel’s announcement to the shepherds heralded this joyful hope for all people –
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11
Again, the hope we have in Christ, and the good news of Christmas assures us, as the angel of the Lord assured Joseph concerning Mary –
21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. – Matthew 1:21
While I continue to listen to my melancholy playlist this season, and while I miss my Dad greatly, I believe I can do more than muddle through the Christmas season. Because of Jesus’ birth, I can have myself a merry, mighty Christmas! May you believe the same and may God fill your heart with hope!