Christmas All Around Us in Stories

To have a story, you must live a story. And that story, if it is interesting and real, will include all the drama and crises that many people prefer simply to read about or watch someone else experience. Heartache. Crisis. Death. And buckets of tears.

“You don’t get to be old without knowing grief and loss.”

Louise Penny [1]

Not a single person whose story got recorded in the Bible escaped suffering, grief, and loss.

No, no, not one.

A Norman Rockwell life exists only in still life.

The Greatest Story Ever Told

Stories matter. Your story matters. You live a story. Your life tells a story that others read too.

The wonder of the Christmas story revolves around the birth of the Savior who came to bear our infirmities (weaknesses of being human) and to identify himself with our suffering.

Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

Isaiah 53:4

Christ of Christmas is not ancient history but present, with us amidst all the confusion, pain, and disappointments of life. “Immanuel, (which means God with us”). [2]

Much of life experience that affects you and me results from the actions and choices of others. And some experiences come as a consequence of our own mistakes, misguided motives and beliefs, as well as misunderstood actions.

Bag and baggage, people need people. And people need stories.

Stories help with healing. Stories help with understanding ourselves and others. Stories encourage people to hope. Stories remind people to forgive.

Stories Are Life Preservers

The following excerpt emphasizes the importance of story and echoes the message of Christmas.

“She only wanted three candles. She wanted her name on the wall. She wanted to be remembered.

. . . Isn’t it something we all share? We all just want to be known by someone. We all just want to be remembered. We all want it to mean something that our feet have walked this soil . . . that we’ve loved and been loved here. We want to know that we’ve made a difference for someone . . . anyone . . . here. 

            One of the things that breaks my heart in this world is knowing that some people have no one to help them feel their significance. They have no one to speak truth to them about their inherent value and worth in the arms of their creator. These people feel forgotten and invisible in the world. Imagine having no one to speak your name into the air. All I know to do is to speak the names of these people, to tell their stories.

            And the more I realize that I am, myself, quickly running out of minutes here, the more I understand this: we were made to be known and loved. We were made to have stories, real stories, full of both the joy and pain of living. We were made to share these stories with the world, and by doing so to change those around us. 

            I am not alone. We are all searching for significance in our own way . . . we all want to know deep down that we matter to someone. . . I want to know that my life means something to more than just me . . . And, after my life is done, at the end of the day, when it’s time to say goodbye, I desperately want to know that people will still speak my name.

            . . . We can speak [people’s] name and tell their stories, redeeming a small part of their painful lives and giving them dignity . . . the story will not leave us alone. It demands of us a response” (64–65).

Excerpt from Creating a Spiritual Legacy, How to Share Your Stories, Values, and Wisdom

After reading this excerpt aloud at a gathering to remember friends who had died this past year-and-a-half, someone asked me to send them a copy.

As I typed pages from this book, these words reminded me of my friend Leani from South Africa. In her country, she says, “Someone is never really gone until no one speaks their name anymore.” Her brother had died when she was in the third grade. My sister Renée had died when I was in the third grade.

Sharing our stories, these losses bonded our friendship.

What’s in a Name?

Christmas reminds me to keep speaking the names of those I love and telling their stories.

Christmas centers on “Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” [3]

Jesus. His story of light, life, and redemption, among all the stories ever told, “will not leave us alone. It demands of us a response.”

P.S. During the rest of the holiday season, I will take a break from writing this weekly blog. Come back in 2022.

[1] Spoken during an interview with Louise Penny I heard on the BBC.

[2] Matthew 1:23

[3] Matthew 1:20-21