A week ago we received one of those phone calls that all of us dread. Trenton, the five year-old son of two of our best friends, Kurt and Carissa, was admitted to the pediatric ICU with bacterial meningitis. As we've gone about our week, the week before Christmas, our hearts have been heavy and our prayers constant. As we talk with Kurt and Carissa and read their CarePage updates, we feel, just a bit, the peaks and valleys our friends have experienced this week. It's so hard to watch those you love hurt.
And of course, we've squeezed our own boys a bit tighter, maybe even exercised a little more patience and echoed a few less complaints about a messy house, a temper trantrum, or an early morning wake-up.
This Christmas Eve, I'm so aware of the sacrifice God made when he sent us his only son. I think it took becoming a parent for me to grasp, even a bit, the sheer enormity of that gift.
The word Emmanuel -- God WITH us -- has also taken on fresh meaning. It is God with us, God next to us, God traveling beside us that gives us the strength for those tough phone calls. It's God with us that allows Kurt and Carissa the peace of sleep at night. It is God with us that allows us the hope of miracles and healing. It is God with us that allows us the hope that this world and its suffering are not the end of the story.
May God's presence be evident to you this Christmas.
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