Growing Up Despite Christmas

I once made a fictional character voice my own thoughts on growing up:

"We grow up a little more each time we realize the world isn't the place we wish it was."

Since I wrote that I've realized this world isn't the place I wish it was, many times. I've made mistakes, seen people hurt, and wondered how our world is still spinning. But it is, and with that spinning comes day after day in an endless monotony that leaves us begging to go back. Which leaves us here, at another Christmas.

Cheer yes, nostalgia yes, but doesn't a little part of you ache inside? I've lost people, both to death and to life changes. My life has become even crazier. I know less about the future than I did a year ago.

The secret none of us wants to admit is that Christmas gets a little sadder every year.

Nostalgia is a bittersweet drug.

The beauty of Christmas is that it's deeper than nostalgia. We celebrate Christmas not to remember what happened when we were onesie wearing tykes tearing open gifts, but what happened 2,000 years and still shocks us today. The Lord of light entered a world of darkness, a little glimmer of illuminating hope, to warm the hearts of those with none.

Believe me, the world isn't any brighter today. But there's so much more hope. Hope that you and I carry like little flickers of flame guiding the stumbling. That's the message of Christmas.

Despite growing up, Christmas still holds expectancy.

Gloria in excelsis deo. The darkness has to flee.

Merry Christmas.