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Blue Christmas
A woman, who had recently lost her husband and was facing her first Christmas without him, included in her Christmas cards a letter where she reflected upon some of her thoughts and feelings. She wrote: "I wonder about many things, things that I have noticed. I wonder, how can it be that my husband, who is dead, continues to live and minister to me and to the children? I wonder, how is it that in the midst of searing heartache, I found God and the power to keep on going? I wonder, how is it that as a result of this tragedy, old friendships are deepened and new friendships formed?" And then she answered her own questions at the end of the letter by writing, "Christmas is the promise that God can be trusted to meet all our needs. Some say the first Christmas without my husband will be very painful. I'm sure it will be. But without Christmas, my life would be impossible."Go, Light Your World
Except for her passionate love of South Africa, Amy Biehl was a typical Southern California kid, a straight-A student and a college diving champion who would end her diatribes against apartheid with the words `Free Mandela!' So it was not surprising that when she won a Fulbright scholarship, she opted to go to South Africa and immerse herself in the country's culture and politics. But her young life ended abruptly in 1994 when she was stoned and stabbed to death by a mob of angry, young, black militants. She was killed by the very people whose cause she was fighting for. But instead of being angry with her murderers, her parents did something so atypical that it boggles the mind.The Only Way Out
Christmas had always been a happy season in the Kingsley home. But not this year. Tragedy had robbed it of its brightest ornament - the Kingsley's only child, a strikingly attractive girl of 18. Her life had been suddenly snuffed out in an automobile accident six months before. And although the loss had been a crushing one to both parents, Marian Kingsley seemed inconsolable. "Christmas! How I hate the very sound of that word!" she had exclaimed bitterly to her husband at the beginning of the holiday season. "I don't want to see a piece of tinsel or a sprig of holly or a scrap of Christmas wrappings anywhere!" So she avoided the Christmas crowds as much as possible. Whenever anyone called out "Merry Christmas", Marian's lips would tighten, and a bitter angry gleam would flash from her eyes."Merry Christmas to me - when all I have are the ashes of memory!"Highway to Heaven
("Margaret Tayler Yates was a Navy wife, who was living in the Pearl Harbor area at the time of the Japanese attack in 1941. For more than a year before that, she'd been bed-ridden due to a heart condition....")When the Holidays Bring No Joy
("Each year newspaper columnists write articles about how people celebrate Christmas but also about how some people have to cope with depression during the Christmas season. They usually interview noted psychologists and medical doctors and solicit their advice. The columnists will create lists that are striking similar. With minor modifications the suggestions will include:...")God with Us
("Some of you have read Albert Camus's novel The Plague. The scene is a city in North Africa where the plague has broken out. No one may enter the city or leave it for a long period of time. People are dying by the hundreds. Those who survive grow weary and sick at heart. One of the novel's characters is an old man....")