His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

No matter what age you are, you probably have a Christmas tale about a sad Christmas, one that didn’t go exactly as planned, one that was disappointing, one that was so sorrowful you can’t think about it without the tears flowing.

Or you may have a Christmas tale about a happy Christmas, one where someone surprised you with an unexpected gift, one where you reconciled with a loved one, one where everyone loved the gifts you bought them, or one where you had enough money to buy someone the gift they wanted but didn’t think they’d get.

Some of you may even have a Christmas tale about an unusual Christmas, one where events unfolded in a non-traditional way, so much so that you can remember the circumstances as if they happened yesterday.

I’ve had all of the above, and although space—and my introverted personality—doesn’t lend itself to reciting the details of each situation, here’s a partial list of my most unusual Christmases.

• A Christmas morning when a family member had a kidney stone, and we had to spend the entire day in the ER.
  
  
• A Christmas when an ice storm struck so no family members were able to make it to our house to participate in our gift-giving and holiday meal together.
  
  
• A Christmas Day when my husband, young daughter, and I had to travel to a foreign country where we would be living for the next three years—a frightening and very lonely day.
  
  
• A Christmas Eve when I had to call an ambulance for my husband, who thought he was having a heart attack. In the ER, we learned it was acute pancreatitis, and he ended up spending the next three months hooked up to an IV.
  

Although it may be hard to believe, I could list several more unusual Christmases during my lifetime. But strangely enough, in all of these circumstances, I found peace by focusing on the most unusual day in all of human history—the First Christmas Day—the day God arrived on planet Earth in a human body.

It was a day like no other day, an unusual day, a unique day, a day we should celebrate even if our Christmas Day ends up being sad, happy, or unusual.

Jesus tells us why in His own words. “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.” John 12:46.