December 2010 was a memorable one. My husband had been out of work for 5 months and we were still knee-deep into the season of ‘being-anxious-about-every-single-thing-we -purchased.’ Should I buy this bag of coffee? Do we need it? Isn’t coffee a luxury? Will I regret buying this later?
The time had finally come to decide if we were going to go to Minnesota to celebrate Christmas with my family.
My husband had been working hard sending out resumes, going to workshops, doing cold calls, meeting with recruiters. He’d even had a couple of interviews. We’d kept hoping something would be lined up so we could go, but still nothing. And — since a trip from Tennessee to Minnesota was a little bit more money than a bag of coffee— we opted to stay home.
Oh, how I cried that night. I was so disappointed. To not see my family, to not play in the snow.
However, in order to make the best of it, I changed things up; we hosted at our house instead of my in-laws. I prepared a table of fun cheeses, shrimp cocktail and other things for our Christmas Eve dinner. We read the nativity story, exchanged gifts, and went to bed.
And, when we awoke, lo and behold, what did we see? Snow!
We woke up to an inch of snow on the ground in Nashville! On Christmas Day! This rarely happens- only 8 times in the last 113 years.
Only eight times? And yet one of those times was 2010 when my heart was broken about not being in snowy Minnesota? It felt like such a deeply touch from God to our disappointed hearts. An answer to prayer that we hadn’t yet prayed.
Perhaps you have a Christmas memory or two that stands out among others. Perhaps you’d like to share in the comments? I’d love to read it.
#mondaysbymidnightî
