The Back Page
By Sue Ferguson
This month, I have decided to share with you one of my favourite back pages that I wrote in December of 2023. These memories and sentiments remain with me always. If you didn’t read it back in 2023, I hope you enjoy, and if you did read it, I hope you enjoy it just as much this time around! Have a blessed Christmas.
Have you been overcome with Christmas spirit yet? Christmas seems to sneak up more quickly with each passing year. I may have even watched one or two Hallmark Christmas movies already. Love stories that take place in the most magical of landscapes complete with Christmas festivals, snowball fights, hot cocoa by the fire, and always a Christmas Eve kiss. Before the “Hallmark Countdown to Christmas” movies, we watched classics such as “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, “Frosty the Snowman”, and my personal favourite “Christmas at Plum Creek”. Yep, “Little House on the Prairie”. Instead of Christmas in a chalet in the Alps, they celebrated in their little house with a real wood burning fire and fresh home-made bread baked by Ma. “Half-Pint” as Pa called Laura, even sold her beloved horse Bunny one year so she could by Ma that beautiful wood stove for Christmas. There was always a focus on fellowship and family, and the real reason for celebrating Christmas – the birth of our Lord and Saviour. A bright star shining in the dark of night over the place where He lay. A light that gives us hope in a sometimes dark world. What memories does Christmas hold for you?
I will share with you my memory of the Christmas of 2003. Not quite a Hallmark Christmas movie, but a Christmas that will forever be etched in my mind. Still living in Colorado, my husband George and I received news that his cancer had spread, and he had probably only 6 weeks to live. I won't soon forget the oncologist looking at George, looking at me, and then at our 11 month old son Sihler as tears rolled down his cheeks. I thought, if our oncologist is crying, this cannot be good news. Next came the phone calls home to inform our families, followed by a question of what to do for Christmas. We were living with our friends Dan and Amy Bennett at the time, and they informed us that they were going to vacate their home for Christmas to allow us to share our holiday with as many family members as could make the trip out to Colorado. So began our last “Christmas in Colorado”. Our families and extended families flew out and we all had so much fun. We cooked huge meals, made gingerbread houses, went on hikes, and had many laughs and prayers as a family around the table. There were so many shining moments during a dark time. I will forever be grateful to Dan and Amy for sacrificing their home for us. Dan's mom even showed up on Christmas morning, and even though Dan wasn't there, she celebrated with us. Being together outweighed any material gift that was given. Knowing George believed that God was standing with him in the fire gave us hope and comfort in a terrifying time.
I circle back to that bright star shining in the East, and the hope that Christ gives us. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)
In the years that have followed the passing of my husband a few months after that Christmas, I cherish the people I get to spend time with over the holidays, the friends and family with whom I share a pew on Christmas Eve at Church, my kids, and especially my amazing husband Shane. George is celebrating Jesus' birthday with Him in heaven now. Perhaps sooner than he planned, but nonetheless on God's time.
Whether it is Christmas at Plum Creek, Christmas in Colorado, or wherever we are, if Christ is in our hearts we don't need gifts or treasures, for in Him we have everything. A beacon of hope and unconditional love, He is our beginning and our happy ending.
