Let\u2019s be honest. While many are singing \u201cJoy to the World\u201d and \u201cWe Wish You a Merry Christmas,\u201d some are humming the blues. While houses and stores are all aglow with Christmas lights, some of us see only darkness and gloom. While the Christmas season beckons us to see everything in green and red, some of us see only blue.<\/p>\n
Maybe a loved one has died and there\u2019s an empty seat at the table this year. Maybe there\u2019s been a divorce and Christmas brings back too many painful memories. Maybe your family is a dysfunctional mess and Christmas just reminds you of it. Maybe you\u2019re feeling homesick for a home that\u2019s too far away or maybe no longer there. Maybe you\u2019re out of work and you don\u2019t know how you\u2019re going to pay for groceries, much less for Christmas gifts. Maybe there\u2019s just something about the shorter days and the longer nights and the ongoing struggle you have with depression just seems worse at this time of year. Maybe, just as the song says, some of you will be \u201cdoing alright with your Christmas of white,\u201d but others are looking at having \u201ca blue, blue blue blue Christmas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Would you like to get some real help with the blues this Christmas? I think a fresh look at the Christmas story could help us all. Let\u2019s look at Christmas through the eyes of an old man named Simeon. He waited his whole life to see the Messiah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":6339,"template":"","tags":[2015],"series":[2512],"scripture-book":[1309],"scripture-chapter":[1335],"speaker":[2007],"class_list":["post-6340","message","type-message","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-christmas","series-the-colors-of-christmas","scripture-book-luke","scripture-chapter-1335","speaker-gary-combs"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/6340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/message"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/message\/6340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6340"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=6340"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-book","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-book?post=6340"},{"taxonomy":"scripture-chapter","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/scripture-chapter?post=6340"},{"taxonomy":"speaker","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.garycombs.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/speaker?post=6340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}