A little over a year ago, I was going through Mom’s belongings. In a nondescript white box with a stretch band around it, I was shocked to find the presence of hundreds of handwritten love letters from my mom to my dad and from my dad to my mom. Knowing my parents, I believe that they each kept these letters, not because they needed paper to remind them of their love, but because keeping the letters was a tangible way for them to communicate that the small moments of each other’s lives, their thoughts, and their dreams mattered. The letters communicated the priority of their relationship and love.
Similarly, I found a stack of all the Christmas letters Mom wrote from the early 1970s until her death. I believe she kept them for a similar reason: because she truly felt her Christmas letters were love letters to friends who were like family.
Honestly, the entire Christmas story is really a love letter of sorts—of God realizing that we people had confused His true identity with too much religiosity and too many rules. Imagine His horror to see that some believed that God only loved people who looked like them, talked like them, and lived like them. Many felt like they were completely left out of God’s love. The Christmas story is based on God sending His Son to communicate to these people who felt unlovable how much He loved them. How do I know? Because Jesus primarily spent all his life with the poor, the ignored, the women and children, and societal outcasts, convincing them that they were not too unimportant for God to love them.
If Christmas is all about love letters to those who matter to us, then, Christmas Letter 2021 is a love letter to you. It is a love letter to my family--and to my friends who are like family:
- To my son, Andy: How you have turned your life around in the past year—from working full-time, to beginning your MBA at Baylor, to your new adventure in January moving to Reno, Nevada, for an internship as program manager for new designs for Tesla! Since you are fairly independent already, I know you will accomplish great things and fly high (as your grandpa would say).
- To my son, Jonathan: I am so proud of you for working so hard as a full-time environmental science major at Baylor and a student worker. I so admire your ability to be 100% in the moment, living life to the fullest. Despite any distance, you are never away from my thoughts.
- To my husband, Anthony: How you have taken your skills and talents and created a real estate business model that attracts clients across the country amazes me each day. You live big and love big, and you never fail to be there for all of us, whether it is a son who needs a car, a client who needs a house, or a wife who needs constancy in the midst of it all.
- To my friends who are like family (that is ALL OF YOU): Thank you for being in my life. Thank you to so many of you for your prayers, thoughts, or check-ins with me in the past year. Losing my mom last year, joined together with COVID online teaching, and then discovering I have my own breast tumor (thankfully, benign), you have kept me going on this roller coaster of life, holding on to me when I was flying out of the seat.
For all of us at Christmas, especially all of us who feel unloved, ignored, unseen, unheard, unappreciated, too much, or not enough, certain times of the year can be rough. However, at Christmas, God’s message in His love letter meant just for you is this: I love you. Wholly. Unconditionally. Just as you are.
For all of you living a Christmas that is not quite as you imagined it: perhaps with sick parents, a family member who is no longer there, unruly kids, alienated children, a home with a tiny Charlie Brown tree with just a couple presents beneath, this Christmas letter is hopefully my small way of letting you know you matter. You have made an impact on my life. This is my love letter to you.
All of us occasionally need a “love letter” created just for us. May this year be one filled with moments where you are assured of love.
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