Hearts of kindness are with the grieving at Christmas

Photo by Jacob Postuma on Unsplash

Christmas Eve, and the lead up to Christmas, this year has had a different taste about it as compared with previous years. I must confess I’ve been touched by a family who lost their son, brother, grandson, nephew less than one month ago. He was so young; just two years old. Two weeks ago, today, was his funeral.

This time a month ago, he was alive. That thought, for me, let alone the family, is beyond belief.

I know that the family will be doing their best to have a good Christmas this year, but I understand that that will be a bridge too far. There may be moments of joy, but much sorrow won’t be far away. There is no compensation for their experience of life right now. No comfort that comforts them satisfactorily. Their courage to bear their inimitable reality is sheer temerity of spirit. And yet they have no choice!

I have found the impression of Ecclesiastes chapter 7, especially verse 3, bearing down upon my spirit:

Sorrow is better than laughter,
for by sadness of countenance the heart is made glad.

Such a profound verse of scripture. Profound because it surely doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. How can the heart be made glad by sadness of countenance?

For those of the world, and for those who haven’t gone there, such a concept is utter rubbish. It has to be. There is no logic in it. But many spiritual concepts defy logic.

I have to say, that having experienced grief at Christmas I now simply have no interest in experiencing empty (foolish) joy. So many of the ‘joys’ of this life are empty, truly vacuous.

Having said above that there is no compensation for this family, they may soon find there is something of a worthwhile compensation available for them; just not now. That ‘soon’ is relative to hindsight having looked back from the experience of such compensation, just not beforehand.

Somehow sorrow at the time of celebration enriches the experience, but we never reap such a reward for many years. Such seed takes years to grow and bear fruit.

For those of us in seasons of normality, Christmas takes on familiar dimensions of experience. We may forget just how hard it is or was to endure the season of jolliness when we felt like death ourselves. A heart of kindness is the Christmas spirit of the Christ who came, emptied of his glory, to redeem us through his own heart of kindness.