All Is Well

December 22, 2014

Dear Daughters,            

We are far away from all of you this year so I am taking time to remember all the years we were together, just you four daughters, Dad and I.  After dinner during the Advent season we would always light a single candle or more and sing Christmas carols together.  Even though there may have been misunderstandings, faulty communication and hurts during the day, the singing would somehow make things better, peaceful and good.  How those memories have flooded over me this season.

Then came the memories years later when our family was growing – boyfriends, husbands, babies.  One memorable Christmas Eve as we were all together there were hurtful words, tears, struggles to understand, brokenness and pain.  That night was not what any of us had hoped for or could have predicted.  The next morning, Christmas Day, you four girls were scheduled to sing during the worship service.  As the evening wore on and we were waiting for understanding and forgiveness, one of the sons-in-law asked what song we were planning to sing.  All Is Well was my reply.  He said “I think The Old Rugged Cross would be more appropriate at this point.”  Personally, I was ready to cancel Christmas altogether.  After all the careful planning, meal preparation and hopes of a Silent Night, Holy Night, it had turned into a Painful Night, Tearful Night.  I was in no mood to sing, and especially not All Is Well because all was certainly not well in our home that night. But in the midst of the sadness, the heartache that comes with our brokenness, God was there.

It was almost midnight when you girls and I walked over to the empty church building and practiced All Is Well.  You sang, I accompanied on the piano and as we practiced, somewhat mechanically, I felt the Spirit of God hovering among us, silently, gently, almost imperceptibly.  Hope grew in my heart – that relationships would be restored and love would continue.  Exhausted, yet at peace we went home to sleep. The next morning dawned and we quietly gathered ourselves together.  We worshiped in faith, still bruised and weary, but we worshiped and sang All Is Well. 

Since that time I have pondered many times the fact that all is indeed well, always, whether life is peaceful or whether there is strain.  The fact is, Immanuel, God is with us.  He’s there in our hard times, he’s there in our joyful times.  He never leaves us.  He’s working to continually restore relationships and bring reconciliation to those who are willing to forgive.

A Hallmark Christmas ours was not that year, but we learned once again that Jesus came for us, came for families like ours who battle, disagree and hurt each other.  He came so that we could be made new, so that we could learn to love and be faithful, so that we could learn to humble ourselves and forgive.

Now, many years later, we are in Idaho and again among families that have battle scars, yet still we sing.  On these dark and cold advent nights we are practicing the same tradition with Grandpa and Grandma that we did with you girls so long ago.  We light the candles and sing carols, a new tradition for them.  Their voices quaver and are not quite as in tune as they used to be.  When we go down the scale on Away in A Manger Grandpa goes up and we meet somewhere in the middle, but it is still peaceful and good.

All Is Well.

Love, Mom