To gather with family and friends over the holidays is one of the greatest of gifts. It also takes work. A whole. Lot. Of. Work. Meeting together takes intentionality and planning and packing. So. Much. Packing. While you get these IG moments that make all look wondrous as cousins and grandparents play, the road there and back and the spaces between can be chaotic and intense. But you gather because to be together is to be human. And when God climbed down and became human among us, even Jesus gathered together a people. Life is meant to be ventured in community; so much of #Advent and #Christmas celebrates this vital human need, especially in the midst of so much present fracturing of people and places.
Yet the holidays can also be heavy and unfiltered. The season can be bleak and burdensome, saturated with relational complexity or reoccurring grief or feelings of aloneness even though surrounded by so many. These days can remind us of voids still to be filled, if ever they will. So as you gather in the days ahead, be kind and gracious to one another. We do not know the fullness of everyone’s story. Maybe extend an extra invitation to another, a neighbor, who may have nowhere to gather and be looking for community. And wherever you come together, find good news in that whenever two or more gather, God is indeed with us.