peace on earth, good will toward men

{via babble.com}

december 23rd is a strange day for me. christmas is so close you can almost taste it. but for me, december 23rd tastes bittersweet.

some years i think of it more than others.
some years it doesn't hit me until the end of the day.
some years there's melancholy mixed in with the hopefulness of christmas, and i don't know why until i look at the calendar.

i know i've written about this before. if you haven't been reading for long, and want to know the "why" you can find it here.

sixteen years ago my world changed forever.
and it is beyond strange that it has already been 16 years.

and i don't quite know why i feel the need to write about it again when i've written about it so many times before. i know that it sticks in my mind and my heart because of how my life has progressed from that point on.

i know that great people and horrible things can both change your life for the better. even if they have to collide with one another to do it.

i know that God is bigger than all of it. and he doesn't let us go.

it's easy to get lost this time of year. there are so many distractions. so many things that pull us away from where we want to be.

it's easy to mock the idea of "peace on earth, good will toward men" when people cut each other off in traffic trying to get where they want to go. and when stores are less than peaceful. when the stress of anything and everything bleeds out all over the people that you don't know so it doesn't taint the moods of the people you do know.

there are so many distractions.
so many hurts that get drummed up.
so many things we feel we have to do.

we feel what we do have just as much as who and what we don't have.

every year, on december 23rd, i'm reminded of a life well lived. but more than that, i'm reminded of a God who can take it all and redeem it. no matter what.

"then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

'God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

the wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

with peace on earth, good will to men.'"

i heard the bells on Christmas day. 

by: henry wadsworth longfellow

xoxo