A Christmas Reflection

A short while ago, as I was sitting here doing some reading, I was listening to operations at a working fire on High Street in the Valley Falls village of Cumberland (RI).

After offering a short prayer for those involved (those in need of help and those working to help), I started thinking about another early Christmas morning fire (on Smith Hill in Providence - a number of years ago when I was actively involved with fire photography). There was a family on the sidewalk that had to leave the building because of the fire, and one of the girls recognized me as the father of one of her friends (Tommy, if memory serves me right). We talked a little, and they were and would be okay.

Christmas is a time for families to spend time together - individual families and extended families. However, it is not always possible. Things happen - sometimes people need to work (emergency services, health care services, pharmacies, news media, highway crews, and the list goes on), sometimes illness strikes, sometimes there are transportation problems, sometimes people are in nursing homes without any visitors, sometimes people have no family in the area (just to name a few situations).

While researching something else, I recently ran across two prayers related to these circumstances, and I offer them now:

Going to Work on Christmas Day

Loving God, on this sacred day, I am going to work.  There is something special about working on Christmas, when so many others are home with loved ones.  My work today might even have a wondrous sense of service and necessity.  But it doesn’t always feel noble and inside me there is a struggle: I wish I could stay home.  Help me to feel missioned by you today. Let me recognize the unique way my co-workers and I are called to serve our brothers and sisters.  Let me take just a moment in this quiet to feel your deep love for me.  May I carry that sense of peace with me as the light of your love, shining on everyone I come in contact with today.  Thank you.

(Source: Creighton University Collaborative Ministry: Christmas Prayers)

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When One Is Alone on Christmas

Gracious God, I’m alone (again) this Christmas and my heart aches for companionship.  I long for the days when my heart and home were filled with laughter, color, feasting, and joy.  Look with kindness on the pain that seeps like an unwanted sickness over my soul.  Let me wake on Christmas, joyful in silence, hopeful with peace, filled with gratitude for your presence and love.  Amen.

(Source: Explore Faith: Christmas Prayers)