As I stand in my living room on Christmas Eve morning, my children are dancing with scarves to Christmas music, and my husband has been gone since before breakfast. He will join us for lunch and a quick facetime with family from afar, and then be gone until well after bedtime. That is the life of a pastor's family.
Do not get me wrong, here - I would not change any of this for anything. I am proud of my husband. I am happy to share him with a world that needs faithful undershepherds.
We all make sacrifices every single day. It doesn't matter if your husband works in a factory, in an office, or in the church. Or maybe you don't have a husband. The fact is, we all sacrifice certain things. I think it is important for other people to understand about this life, too. My sacrifices may be very different from yours, but it doesn't mean they are easier or harder. They are different.
No, we won't be going home for Christmas.
No, we will actually never be going home for Christmas.
Our home is here with our small family, with our church family, and with our iPad for facetiming.
My husband currently has at least four people in the hospital, one person dying in Hospice, and two other members with considerable needs to serve. Christmas is a joyful time to celebrate our Lord's birth, and yet it brings with it many griefs. People die. People get cancer. People are lonely. And when the people God gave my husband to shepherd do those things, he suffers next to them and for them. That is the heart of the pastor.
"Peter, do you love Me?"
"Yes, Lord; You know that I love You."
"Tend My sheep."
(Paraphrased from John 21:15- 16)
Tending sheep involves more than a service on Christmas morning. It involves much more than preaching a sermon once per week. I do not remember the last time my husband did not receive at least one phone call while at home from a member who was in need. And I have no way of counting the number of calls he receives while in the office.
This doesn't mean I want them to stop calling. Lord, please give them the courage to keep calling when they need him. He wants them to call. He is Called to tend and to feed, and therefore, calling him to tell him how he can tend and feed is important. He has no greater joy in being a pastor than when he is able to tend to sheep in times of need.
God gives great comfort to pastors and their families in this way.
The struggles are real. The weight is heavy. The loneliness is dark.
But the peace in Christ is full. When my husband brings the Word of God to those in need, it also fills him. When he is full, we are full.
And so this Christmas, be full of peace.
The peace brought to us in the manger and on the cross.
Merry Christmas from one pastor's family.
