Are You Having a blue, Blue Christmas? Here’s Hope!
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Written by Jimmie Burroughs
It is Christmas Eve 2011 and my dog and I just took a walk down main street in the small island town of Cedar Key, Florida. It is about dusky dark as we stroll with not a car stirring. Only two cars are parked in the street, a street which runs several hundred yards in length. But suddenly out of the blue a kid comes swishing down the middle of the street on a skate board and shortly vanishes into the darkness. Now the city is totally deserted. As I look up toward the night sky, only the North Star is plainly visible; there’s enough moisture rising from the ocean to give it a cross like shape.
In my imagination, I’m thinking about what should have been on this deserted street on Christmas Eve over 100 years ago, round the turn of the century when the majority of the buildings were constructed. The buildings look awfully old and knackered now and many of them are listed on the nation’s historical register. The paved streets and the absence of hitching posts are doubtless the only real difference from way it must have looked at the turn of the 20th century.
Who knows, maybe at this very same hour, there may have been a horse drawn carriage or 2 making their way down this lonely street on their way to visit friends, or on their way to a Christmas Eve Party. I try tough to imagine how it must have been to have lived then. I’m of the opinion that whoever might have been out on that night so long back has long since been gone.
So tonight it is just me and my dog, the only 2 stirring on this Christmas Eve night, and I find myself standing in front of the Island hotel, as it is called, which was constructed in 1858 and has weathered many a typhoon. As my mind continues to ramble, I speculate who could have been lodging here 150 years ago on Christmas Eve. What were their names; what did they do and why were they here.
There’s a massive neon sign in the window that claims open. As I peer through the window, the lights are on, but instead dim and there’s not a soul in sight. I have never been inside the hotel, but as I look in I note the ceiling and walls are built from planking, the same sort of material that would have been used 150 years back. Perhaps it is the same. The counter looks awfully old also, like it may have been the original.
We turn around, my dog and I, and start to walk slowly back to my jeep, which is parked at the other end of the street. The street’s still completely deserted. We walk past 2 buildings that are boarded up and look like they have been empty for a while. They still look fairly stable but in bad need of restoration.
I am feeling just a little forsaken by this time, and just pondering, as I walk down this deserted street; what’s life all about anyhow? So many others have also passed this way before, maybe a little lonesome also, and now have met their end; wonder if they also had some of my same thoughts as they trudged along.
Many Christmas Eves, that found my better half and I busy placing the kids gifts under the tree, after they went to bed and early Christmas mornings, have come and gone. The memories of those joy filled times came drifting across the shadows of my mind as I walked along; my kids busy opening their gifts around the tall green Christmas tree; just my wife and I and the kids, enjoying Christmas with a fire glowing in the fireside and Christmas music in the background.
The kids are grown and gone and have children of their own. My beautiful better half has passed away and is only a lingering memory. So tonight, it is just me alone in this plausibly, far away deserted tiny island city, with my thoughts and memories, and with my little dog companion, walking down a dark and empty street.
This could be just another unhappy tale, it isn’t, there’s a glorious hope, because tomorrow the sun will rise again on Christmas day and we’re going to join together around the world in a celebration that answers that question, “What is life all about anyway?” On this glorious day some 2,000 years back the savior was born. He came to this earth to sacrifice his life on an old rugged cross so we’d be able to be forgiven and receive God’s gift of everlasting life.
While the enjoyment of those past Christmases with spouse and youngsters are gone for ever, my hope remains in the joy of what Christmas and all of life is actually about: knowing Jesus the Lord, a peace that passes all understanding,. Which gives meaning and purpose to life and that never ends.
Yes, life is filled with many experiences and stages. Things are ever changing; many content experiences pop up and vanish. Life begins and ends. People part and go their separate ways and everything appears so temporal. Nonetheless in the middle of all this change there is someone that is the same yesterday, today and forever and that is the Lord Almighty. A connection with God is the single thing that sounds correct of this continually changing world. It’s the only thing that stays the same and it is the single thing that we take with us when life on the planet is over. In this season of lights, why not build a relationship with God and see in person what a difference it makes in what otherwise could be a dreary, disappointing world.
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