Estoy empezando tradiciones.

As I left the hospital late Christmas Eve, I unknowingly brought the day along with me. I packed a bag and got in the car pointing it NorthEast towards Connecticut. I brooded as I drove, thinking over conversations and patient interactions. Slightly desensitized to the Christmas music, even turning the radio up louder was unsuccessful in distracting me.

Christmas has as many different definitions as there are people in this world. 

He had drunkenly fallen and smashed his face. A deep laceration extending beyond the hairline kept painting his stretcher blood red, with occasional spurts hitting as far as the wall beyond his stretcher. As I set to work squelching the hemorrhage, I took a scissors to his hair clearing a way around the gash. I hadn’t asked his permission exactly, rather just told him I was going to give him a haircut. Trying to make light of the fact, I commented on how he’s now going to have a great conversation starter for the holidays. To which he responded with a snort and a “yea..” that trailed off into thought. 

She had fallen three days ago, hadn’t felt quite right since. In accordance with her independent nature, she tried to tough it out on her own, thinking that “this too shall pass.” But it didn’t pass, and finally her husband got tired of her moaning and brought to her to the hospital. Her story about the fall... all a distractor and unrelated to the fact that her intestine had a nice big ulcer, perforated and making her sick. Within an hour or so she was on her way to the OR telling us all she would pray for us, and family was on their way in. I’m sure not in their original plan for the holiday festivities this year.

Their baby had been vomiting for a week. They’d tried changing formula without improvement; anything they gave the little guy came right back up. Unsure what to do next they had presented for evaluation. Turned out, he needed a surgery. Perhaps the surgery could be done immediately and if all went well they could still get home on Christmas! But, lacking empathy for the holiday, the surgeon opts to wait to do surgery until the following morning.  They hide their disappointment, thanking the surgeon for being willing to help their little boy. 

In all of the above, Christmas held a very different meaning for each person involved. 

Without the large social events of the season: church, mass, family, parties, gifts. Without the traditions. Without anything. It’s just you. And humanity. What does or doesn’t Christmas mean to you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Vwu-t7QRaE&feature=share

Noel by Chris Tomlin
Noel, Noel
Come and see what God has done
Noel, Noel
The story of amazing love!
The light of the world, given for us
Noel

Much Love.