2022 feels like it’s passed in a blur. 

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve recently thought, “How did THAT happen??” Both with regard to all we’ve experienced this year, and how increasingly quickly the years of life seem to fly by. 

Take, for instance, Tommy and I celebrating our 28th wedding anniversary on December 17.  Twenty-eight years…  How?   

The longer I live, the more aware I become of how many of life’s most precious memories and traditions take shape in the most unexpected, and often unremarkable, ways. 

That’s exactly how one of my favorite things about this season came to be:  Each year on our anniversary, Tommy and I watch It’s a Wonderful Life.  We haven’t always.  In fact, this tradition of ours dates back, at most, only about a decade.  Up to that point, to us, it was just a movie we probably noticed on TV each Christmas season, but never actually watched.  But then one year, on an anniversary getaway, we returned to our hotel room to find it playing on the TV - the turndown service having beaten us back from a late dinner.  Somehow, that year, we finally paid attention to this beautiful thing that has existed far longer than we have.  …And we’ve made a point of watching it on every single anniversary since. 

Naturally, it therefore now holds a very special place in my heart.  Especially as the years pass, and I grow better able to grasp the deep and profound meaning in the message of this classic film.  So, when I saw “It’s a Wonderful Life” as a possible caption for our Christmas card this year, it felt perfect.

Almost…

I know it’s the writer in me, but these days, I find it mostly impossible to feel content with “just” the words that fit on a Christmas card.  How could so few words ever convey all I really want to say?

I’m told that mailing actual Christmas cards is becoming a thing of the past.  That’s sad to me, because I love them.  Sending them and receiving them.  And since I’m still among the apparently dwindling number of people who do, I for sure want to make the effort count.  I want to say exactly what I want to say in the message I send to our family and friends.  And when it comes to this one thing that represents us - where we are in life and the kind of year we’ve had - it feels more important than ever that it be really true.  Honest.  Authentic.  Meaningful in some way to those who receive it. 

So, even given my affection for all things “Wonderful Life,” I couldn’t quite let myself just send this card without really thinking it through.  What if it made you think I was trying to tell you that everything is perfect, or at least that it’s all been exceptionally good?  Certainly, although life is never perfect, much has been exceptionally good.  And also?  Our life is exactly like most others:  Comprised of highs and lows.  Good times and bad.  Shiny, beautiful days; and also dark, messy ones.  Maybe you can relate?   

When I think back on this blur-of-a-year and realize how much has happened; how much has changed since I wrote last year’s version of this letter – I realize what an example of those contrasts it has provided.  And it surely did not always feel “wonderful” in every moment. 

As it often does, my overthinking led me down a rabbit hole.  I can’t possibly explain it all in this short letter, but if you’re curious, Google “Merriam Webster Evolution of ‘Wonderful’”.  If you do, you’ll learn what I learned.  What I somehow, deep down, suspected: “Wonderful” is one of many words that we use today in a way that does not exactly reflect its origin.  Instead of “extremely good”, the context in which we tend to use it, I learned it originally more likely meant “full of wonder”, or “astonishing”.   

Suddenly, I began to see how – more than I even realized – it truly is the perfect word to describe our real life – especially in this past year…

Many times, it has felt astonishing to consider just how much has transpired.  And looking back at it all, as one big picture, (especially now that I can see some endings) really does fill me with wonder…

Our family walked through loss. 

We faced uncertainty and lived in that terrifying place between familiarity and the possibility - but also the risk - of something new. 

We navigated changes - some small, some really big.  Sometimes ready.  Sometimes maybe not.   

All the while, we also ran hard after the really good stuff of life.  We loved our people.  (And our puppy!)  We did as much as we could of the things we love.  We got to do many of them with people we love.  We didn’t quite fit in everything we might have hoped, but we also got to do some new things we hadn’t planned on.  And the good stuff we did get?  It was really good. 

Remembering everything that’s been packed into this one year kind of explains why Tommy and I have felt pretty exhausted a whole lot of the time!  (We also now need two nights to watch the entirety of It’s a Wonderful Life, but that definitely can’t mean we’re getting old, right??) 

As our year draws to an end, I can see:  Everything worked out exactly as God always meant it to.  In ways we could never have seen coming.  And the things we learned in the process - about life, ourselves, and especially about His true loving faithfulness to us, and how it changes everything, will live in my memory as some of the most beautiful parts of this year. 

God alone gets the glory for every good thing in our life, and He’s the One we can trust when things don’t feel so good.  Does that always make sad, hard, or scary times feel any humanly easier in the moment?  Not necessarily.  But trusting it all to Him sure makes things feel different.  We need only do the best we can, and then remember that we don’t have to figure everything out.  He has that very much under control – and always for our ultimate good. 

And so, this Christmas, I find myself filled with a bit of extra wonder:  Not only that Jesus came, but why He came:  To fulfill everything our hearts really long for.  To offer us the truest kind of Wonderful Life:  One alive with His gifts of hope, peace, love, and joy.  Our circumstances will vary from day to day… year to year.  But His promise of those gifts – and the power they have to change every one of our days never will.   

May we receive them.  May we carry them with us.  In this beautiful season, and into every day to come.