A Mother's Love

I love my daughter so much and I fear that something is terribly wrong in her life.
She doesn't seem happy. She seems empty and sad and very tired.

Perhaps I am letting my imagination run wild.

Earlier this Advent, when I was wrapping gifts, I felt a sense of finality. As if I needed to make sure this Christmas was special. Not only for my daughter, but for my sons as well and my grandchildren.
But, my daughter and her family were going to be here and the others are not.

It was one of the reasons I made a point to decorate this year, even though it was minimal compared to the decorations of others. So that I could make a statement to them that it is important to honor the Lord.

It was sad, this brooding sense of finality or loss, but I am not sure what it actually meant.

Does it mean that I am approaching my death? Or is one of my children?

When my daughter was just here with her husband and their daughter, the sense returned that there is something not right going on. Too much alcohol? My beautiful daughter seems to have lost interest in her appearance. Or is she being verbally abused so that she doesn't care about herself?
Or is there something physically wrong?

Or was it a more general sense that this might be the last time we would be celebrating Christmas with such generosity? That the times of giving gifts and Christmas festivity is drawing to a close?
Because the world is becoming darker every day.

I hope and pray that my sweet children can find their way to You, my Lord.

You are the reason for the celebration and to miss the importance of it is definitely something sad.

Perhaps I feel sad for so many people who do not recognize Your coming, neither the first time or that the time of Your second coming approaches.
Even if that means for some of us that death will take us before You return in Your Glory.

Lord, please bless my children, their spouses and their children with the sure knowledge that You, the Son of God, was born of the most pure virgin Mary. At midnight, in Bethlehem, in piercing cold. And that that is a cause for wonder and awe.
Thank you, my God.