My Wish List for You

Lights are twinkling on all of the houses

Carols swirl throughout the air

Everyone is rushing, getting ready

Laughing and twirling without a care.

Yet my heart aches for you -

You who have a loved one who isn’t there.

All around you the world still bustles

Getting ready for the big Christmas Day

The world doesn’t miss a breath or a heartbeat,

It continues on in its very same state.

People hurrying to get more perfect gifts,

Seemingly not seeing you along their perfect way.

Your mailbox fills with Christmas greetings

Smiling faces so full of cheer

Form letters telling of all their successes,

Little mention (if any) of your loss or of your crappy year.

Maybe the letters are all piling up still unopened -

And you silently decorate the mountain with tears.

They don’t see your world is painfully idle

Or in quiet motion, moving at sickening slow pace

They don’t see you trying to survive only this day or this hour –

That what you could use right now is just one ounce of mercy or grace.

Sitting there, yearning for things to be different

Wishing you could defy the stupid physical laws of time and space.

You may see something in a shop window

That your loved one would have loved to have.

Maybe you completely lack the will power

To look in the boxes of decorations in the attic rack.

Maybe you do it, but just for the children,

And doing so rips your heart clean in half.

You wonder how Christmas can come -

How can Christmas still BE?

For you it’s all just full of bittersweet, painful memories.

I imagine maybe you feel unnoticed,

Invisible, overlooked, and perhaps out of place.

With emotions cascading, maybe tears flowing

Down a silent, empty, Christmasless face.

I just wanted to reach out my hand to you

Even hold your heart in a sweet embrace.

I wanted to tell you that you are not forgotten –

You’re loved, and prayed for, right where you are.

You’re surrounded in love, even though you can’t see it,

The love that’s around you extends from afar.

I envision your loved one at the feet of the angels

Worshiping our Lord in the most glorious song.

They are experiencing Jesus in every blessed breath now.

What Christmas is – they have and they know.

My prayer for *you* is that He can also touch your heart -

To heal it, and hold it, and even help it to grow.

That right there is my Wish List for you:

That you will let Him love you all the way through.