I Remember Christmas

I remember the many Christmases the way that it used to be; me spending many a quiet evening at the apartment where I used to live, in Philadelphia, watching old Christmas specials, going Christmas shopping to buy gifts for my stepdad and my family, and then would go to Dover on the weekends before Christmas to celebrate with my family, then stay overnight. And then, we would wake up in the morning to open all our presents before heading back home to Philadelphia to spend the rest of our Christmas with my stepdad.
But now, all of that has changed; my stepdad had died, and I have been living with my uncle and my aunt for many years since his passing. But somehow, every year, we still celebrate Christmas.
But then, all of that has changed yet again; it has been since last year since we have celebrated our last full Christmas. But now, there is a pandemic, and it has sickened many people with each passing day. In order to save as many lives as possible, we have to give up a lot of things in which we love so very much, such as events as concerts, conventions, carnivals, flea markets, etc. And yes, those kinds of changes must include Christmas, and our plans that go with them. Nothing in our whole, entire lifetimes would have prepared us for something as extraordinary as this.
How do we celebrate Christmas in a time of great fear? How do you celebrate the season in a time of great stress and anxiety, as well as a time of great economic hardship? There are so many questions that have no answers, no matter how hard we try to answer them ourselves. So, what would be the best possible way to celebrate Christmas in spite of what we are facing right now? I guess the best way to do so is to just enjoy the holiday with a straight face, while remaining vigilant. And we should also do so with a lot of prayer, prayers for both political parties to get back together and make peace, prayers for the vaccines to be distributed to all of us, not just in America but all over the world; and prayers for better economic solutions for this pandemic, as well as mental solutions. If we could pray for all of these things, and then use our actions to force our government to do the right thing, then we shall have the hope that our country and our world would get started to healing again right away.

Oh, and I would like to tell you the reason why we should have hope at Christmas: well, the reason for hope comes from the One who chose a young virgin named Mary over 2,000 years ago to give birth to His Son, who would rule the world and to save us and the world from all of the darkness that have been caused by corruption, lying, sexual sin, and all other kinds of evil sin. Mary gave birth to His Son in a manger in Bethlehem to save us all from the power of the devil.
My friends, I hope and pray that you are doing well at this time, and my hope and prayer for all of you is that things shall be a whole lot better than what they are right now for you. May I wish each and every one of you all a very merry and blessed Christmas.