There is a popular song called I’ll Be Home for Christmas.  Some people may consider it a sad song for a festive season. However, it highlights the many good things and blessings of belonging.

            Of course, we all wanted to be surrounded by friends and families and free at least from major concerns as we celebrate Christmas. However,  things do not always happen as we wanted them to be. Even the family of Jesus had so much struggle to find their home on that first Christmas.  Mary did not only suffer the physical and emotional pain of giving birth but she and  Joseph had to face the reality of King Herod’s threat to their newborn. The manger was far from the ideal home on Christmas.  However, the Holy Family was surrounded by people, even though unknown to them, but shared love at that critical moment.  At that time, the manger was the home of the Holy Family.

            Where is home? Where is our manger? On the first day of December, I received a call from a couple asking if I had time to go to their house to bless them. The couple was celebrating their 68^th wedding anniversary. They could no longer drive to church or go around town. The husband was 98, and the wife was 96.

                 When I arrived, it was the caregiver who welcomed me. They were still conversant and could remember many things. After I gave the blessing, they asked me to stay for a little while and told me many stories. The conversation centered on their family, especially their grandchildren, faith, and how they enjoyed visiting St. Vincent’s on Sundays. They said this is the first Christmas they will celebrate with the two of them and their caregiver.  Their only son and his family moved to live in Japan and won’t be able to come for Christmas.

               The couple’s situation and their home may not be what we expect for celebrating Christmas. But it represents the manger —there is faith, there is love. They told me that when you are at that age, you must genuinely hold on to your faith in God. 

            This Christmas, God presents himself to be born into our midst, not only in spiritual poverty but also in material poverty. And Jesus does not want to come merely in the little things but also in our smallness: in our experience of feeling weak, frail, inadequate, living by ourselves, or experiencing hardship.

                Christmas does not need to be ideal. Christmas does not need to be filled with gifts.  It does not need to be the same last year or five years ago, when our family was all complete, when your spouse was still around, or when everything was fine. Our Christmas celebration does not have to be the same as others.

            If, as in Bethlehem, the darkness of night overwhelms us, if the hurt we carry inside cries out and we need a home, remember that there is a manger.  Where there is God, there is home.   There will always be people like the shepherds and the magi who will accompany us on our journey.