I love the Season of Christmas. I don’t mean the hectic days from the 23rd to the 26th. I mean the 12 days of Christmas that stretch the season into the new year, when the long dark nights afford time for reading novels and playing Scrabble. The restful days to wear for the first time the new clothes received as Christmas gifts and when the shortbread and Christmas cakes tastes delicious with a cup of hot tea or, even better, hot chocolate decorated with marshmallows.
Yes, I still have my Christmas tree up and I am resisting the notion of taking it down even though Epiphany dawns heralding the arrival of the magi to present their gifts as the brilliance of the star reveals the gift of God in a new and sparkling way.
On the twelfth day of Christmas, according to the old Christmas carol, 12 drummers came drumming. Let me tell you about the drummers that brought good news today. It was a typical morning – a heap of snow fell overnight but that it was still snowing signalled no need to work the snow blower until the squall ended. A tall cup of coffee, a check of the emails … wait, there is an email from my Syrian friend now residing in Iraq as he and his family wait for a call from Canada. The email says, “Call me, it’s urgent.” I click the video camera icon on SKYPE and soon he answers. “I have a surprise. I have good news” he says with the broadest, biggest smile possible. “We have had the phone call to say they will call soon to give us a date for our interview. Sometime between January 15 and 19.”
We laughed. We cried. We tried to guess when they might actually get here. It was the perfect way to end the Christmas season with the best Christmas gift of all.
We first met, this Syrian family and I, on January 30th, 2016. So it is almost a full year that we have been waiting for this call to say the process of interviewing will begin. It has been a year of emotional ups and downs. Today, it feels like something might happen that will bring our hope of their relocation into reality. Such good news. Such a gift from the magi.
Hearing that wonderful news from Hassan and his family was a great gift to all of us. I am so looking forward to getting their kitchen put together and meeting them here in person. We have all be blessed indeed.
Elaine