Mom Diaries: Christmas! Paraugs

Immanuel: God With Us.

For Rebecca Luther, Christmas usually meant a sweet list of things:

• Christmas tree up by 1st December.
• Decorations till a few days before Christmas. 
• Baking cakes for friends and family from 18th December. 
• Knowing that back home in India her mum and in-laws would be making Rose Cookies, Gujias and other Indian Christmas sweets.
• Family prayer and gift exchange on Christmas Eve.

I'm sure that as she packed away the tree after Christmas of 2019, she, like most of us, had no idea what the year ahead had in store.

Pretty sure her plans did not include losing her father-in-law nor having her husband fly down to India and getting stuck in the lockdown. It did not include living out the pandemic alone in Australia with just her 6.5-year-old son for company. 

Splitting her time between business analysis, cooking, numeracy, Spanish, and holding down the fort on her own, Rebecca was pretty much through the grinder. 

This is what she had to say: 

"With all that was going on around us, it was difficult to not worry about anything bad happening to us too. However, I had been promised that 'a 1,000 may fall at your side, 10,000 at your right hand, but none will come near you' (Psalm 91:7). 

Two words stood out for me—None and Near.

It's amazing how faithful God is!

I have to give full credit to Him alone because He is good and faithful.

Throughout this phase of being on my own, I would stumble upon Bible verses where God promised me that I wouldn't ever be alone. He will hold me up, walk with me and journey through with me. Today I am at that point in my faith where God is at the front and center." 

We're almost at another Christmas again.

As we go to print, Jonah, her husband, has just finally been reunited with them after 235 days!

And this year Rebecca's to-do list will probably look very different, as will yours and mine.

The tree will still go up, yet we don't know if our whole family can gather around it.

The baking will get done, but we don't know how many people we can meet and hand over the goodies to.

We may buy new clothes, but church services and gatherings will not be the same this year.

However, what remains constant and unchanging is God's Presence.

One that came in the form of a baby.

One that will see us through, till the end of days: In a pandemic or otherwise.

Jesus. Immanuel.