I’m sick.

Not super sick, but that kind of cloggy, sneezy, coughy stuff that makes it hard to function.

So, I’ve propped myself up with 5 pillows, and I’m swimming in vitamin C, and I’m working from home today, all in the hopes that I won’t be sick come Christmas.

I think my chances of recovery are good. After all, it’s just a little cold. But it gets me thinking…

There will be a lot of people who are sick on Christmas.

People who have incurable diseases. People who deal with chronic pain on a daily basis. People who are suffering from malnutrition.

And not just physical sickness. There will be a lot of people who’s hearts are heavy. People mired in depression. People who are at the end of their rope. People who have lost their way.

You know, my whole life I haven’t been able to shake the notion that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are somehow magical days when, for a moment, everything is supposed to be perfect.

But that’s just not true, is it?

The world doesn’t stop suffering just because you and I sing Silent Night. The sick don’t find themselves magically healed. The problems of our country don’t vanish.

What does happen is that all at once a great many people acknowledge Perfect Love in their midst. The truth is that Love was there on the ’23rd and it will be there on the ’26th.  But on this momentus occasion, we recognize the Love of God, come to earth in Christ. And it has the power to change us.

This Perfect Love did not come to instantly right all wrongs or cure all ills. It came as an arrow, pointing towards a path of life that runs deeper than any illness and more powerful than any pain.  A path of compassion, faith, hope, justice, peace.

It doesn’t matter if you’re sick or healthy, lost or lazy.  It doesn’t matter in what condition Christmas finds you, only that it finds you. Then, no matter the conditions of your life, you have the opportunity to make Christ’s path your path.