Blue Christmas - Reflection from Rev. Mees Tielens, Curate

Sometimes churches hold what are called “Blue Christmas” services.

Blue, here, doesn’t refer to the liturgical color, but to the feeling.

These are services aimed especially for whom Christmas season isn’t shaping up to be one of happiness, joy, and cheer, but one of grief, mourning, and loneliness. It is a way to hold space for whatever people might be feeling that may be out of step with societal expectations. You might be grieving a loved one, working through painful memories of abusive family dynamics, or feeling especially tender about infertility when you see all the happy families around you, and find that all the Christmas ‘cheer’ only makes it worse.

We know from the Bible that God’s people felt every emotion under the sun. We know from the Gospels, specifically, that Jesus knew anger and heartbreak and betrayal. We know Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus and felt utterly alone on the cross. God came to earth to love and laugh and cry with people, to take our human experiences seriously, and sanctify them. The good, the bad, and everything in between.

So whatever your holiday season has been like so far, and whether you are looking forward to Christmas celebrations or dreading them, know that all of that is welcome with God. Because although our culture prescribes a million things you’re supposed to do during the holidays, God doesn’t need us to do anything other than, as Kate Bowler prays in A Blessing for Love to Come at Christmas, to “receive this gift, dear one/Love has come for you.”