Could you imagine?

Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone had a wonderful day. We did... I will post some pictures and videos later.

I had a moment yesterday and just wanted to share it with you. As you all know, my Dad passed away in August and this is the first Christmas that we have had to spend without him. These last couple of weeks have been hard for me personally because I am still feeling a huge void in my life and I have been having a hard time finding the "joy" this holiday season. It seemed like every time I would think about Christmas, I would attach a negative adjective to it and I forgot the real reason that we are celebrating. If you know me at all, you know that normally I LOVE Christmas... I put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, I put out my million gazillion decorations, and I have a smile on my face that just won't go away. This year I barely put out any decorations, and the only reason we had a tree up (we didn't get it up until last weekend) is because of my wonderful husband deciding that we needed some holiday cheer. To be honest, I was just ready to get Christmas over with so that I wouldn't have to think about my Dad not being here.

Yesterday we decided to go to our church's Christmas Eve service. As the worship team started singing Silent Night, the lights were all out and it was completely dark inside this huge room except for one candle light that was shinning. The worship leader light her candle from the one, and from there the light started to spread as the worship team and choir continued sing. Before you knew it, all the hundreds of us who were in that room held a candle whose flame was started from the one little flame. It was one of those moments that just took your breath away... to see that image... all those candle lights... and to hear the sounds of everyone singing... it just took your breath away.

Then I started thinking... if I think what I am seeing and hearing is this awesome here, just imagine what my Dad is seeing and hearing in Heaven right now. Imagine the singing there... it is more awesome than anything my ears have ever heard. Imagine the angels by candle light in Heaven... now that is something that would take my breath away. At the same time that I was experiencing something that I thought was breath taking here on Earth, my Dad was experiencing something so much more in Heaven, a million times better ... so much more that I couldn't even imagine! I think that was the first time that I have been comforted in knowing that even though my Dad is not here with me, he is in a place that is so wonderful, so perfect, so magnificent. That puts a smile on my face... the smile that I had lost during this season until now.

Merry Christmas.