The Loneliest Christmas

The Loneliest Christmas

 

I'm taking just a moment,
To be thinking of someone,
Who was alone this Christmas,
Who's only child is gone,

No ringing telephone for him,
No knock upon the door,
No one to sing carols with,
No one to talk of days of yore,

The nest is empty now,
His Son has gone away,
The loneliest time, he's ever known,
Has come this Christmas day,

No laughter, today, will fill his rooms,
No casual fireside chat,
The only one, who truly loved him,
Has left, and that is that,

So Spare a thought,
For Father God,
Who spent the first Noel,
Separated from his family,
So we won’t go through hell,

 

The hell of being lonely,
For eternity and Amen,
He made, the ultimate sacrifice,
And gave up his son to die for men

 

 

 

 

Reflection: The Father’s Gift

 

If I’m honest, I don’t really like the twee elements of this rather simplistic poem. It seems a little trite. I squirm a little at the notion of inviting you to feel ‘pity’ for The Father. So why include it in this advent collection?

It expresses something unique, that I’ve not seen elsewhere, and had not seen before I wrote it. The Father’s side of giving up his son at the incarnation. The sacrifice at Calvary is so often framed as Jesus’ suffering, but if we only focus on this element, we are losing at least half of the story. As the famous words of Jesus, recorded by The Apostle John declare, For God (The Father) so loved the world that he gave his one and only begotten son. Jesus gave his life, yes. But God gave his son.

Many a parent can understand the sentiment of offering yourself in place of the suffering of your children, but the Father, with the full and equal agreement of the son, gave him up to suffer for us. How much did that hurt him? At least as much as it hurt Jesus, I would venture. To watch him suffer was arguably the harder part.

And that offering up, that sacrifice, started here at the incarnation. I don’t really know if The Father, in any sense, missed his son while Christ was on earth. This poem, I admit, was bit of an indulgence. I focussed in this poem, instead, on the loneliness often felt by estrangement or bereavement that is so heightened by the Christmas holidays. I likened our heavenly Father to such an earthly father. Because the cost of this separation, if not yet in full effect, was yet to come. And yes, this gift was costly.

 

 

 

~Scripture~

 

 

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

~ John 3:16