Dear friends,

A few years ago, Keefer painted a manger scene in a little homeschool art class. He chose the phrase Hope is Here for the banner hanging above the baby. I loved everything about this painting and had it framed like a museum piece. It is usually hung in a place of prominence because it is one of my favorites. This year it’s displayed in the kitchen. Of course, like most parents, I see all the flaws that one would see in a ten-year-old’s artwork, which makes it all the more endearing. The profoundness encapsulated in this precious piece of art, however, is exactly the message God has for my family's tender hearts this Christmas. Hope is here—this truth is now, more than ever, a balm to the Finnegan family.

This year, the world as we knew it ceased. I would never wish these tragic circumstances on another. My family is walking through most of their peer’s worst nightmares. We ourselves have desperately fought to wake up from this new reality.  Every life in the Finnegan home was forever changed in one shocking moment. The loss of our family patriarch—a faithful husband, father, mentor, and friend, was followed by the unknowns of a permanent home, finances, business ventures, and future security. The day-to-day excitement of our thriving family—with children ranging from grade school to post college—was sometimes replaced with dark and hopeless thoughts for their futures. Celebratory moments that we had cherished and anticipated—graduations, concerts, parent nights, weddings—are now colored with sorrow and grief. There is a gaping hole felt daily by each of us with the loss of the man who was bigger than life and brought unconditional love, sharp wit, fatherly encouragement, and brilliant humor to our lives. A loss of this kind could quite literally end in a sad tailspin of epic proportions. But, thankfully, that is not our story. Hope is here. On this very first Christmas without our beloved husband and dad, we feel tremendous heartbreak and hope.

I have come to find that God is real and present even, perhaps especially, in our sorrow. I am overwhelmed by the numerous ways that God is meeting our needs, bringing comfort, miraculously providing, and infusing moments of beauty and joy in our lives. The juxtaposition of the latter blessings with the devastating pain of missing Sean brings us to our knees. We live daily with both profound gratitude and grief. 

This journey is not easy. Steps forward in the Finnegan home are hard fought. It’s dynamic. At times we’re moving forward, at times backward, and often we feel stuck—this changes from hour to hour, from person to person, and from day-to-day. Days can be dark. At times, the future feels scary or bleak. We laugh. We cry. We sometimes find ourselves keeping one another from slipping into despair. 

This might all seem strange for a Christmas letter. But honestly, this is the Christmas message! God broke into our world as a baby. Not because it makes for a charming story. He comes to answer, indeed to heal, the real hurt in our lives, the real ways in which our world has gone wrong. Isn’t that the deep ache of all of our hearts? Our lives can feel lonely and isolated. We have disappointments. Dreams that have been dashed. We have fears, regrets, and doubts. We have tremendous losses. Deep down we know that this is not how it was meant to be. We feel the darkness of the world and want the world to be made right. And if we’re honest, we feel the darkness in our own hearts. I have found that no one gets through this life without getting hurt. And we all, at some time, hurt others. And this is why Jesus came. 

The story of Christmas tells us about God and ourselves. It tells us we have a Father who delights in sharing his love, his most precious Son, Jesus Christ. It tells us we are deeply loved and that God comes for the ones he loves—that he refuses to forsake his own to this broken world, even if we have brought upon some of the hurt. The hope of the Christmas story tells us that God bonded himself to his people by becoming one of them. And by doing so, Jesus bids us to enter into the familial love that he has always shared with his Father and the Spirit. Christmas rings with the message that God has come to dwell with us, that he himself desires and must bear our weaknesses, our sins and sorrows. But, as with any gift, we must open our hands and hearts to receive it. We must embrace the babe in the manger, the humble King.

Christmas is real, friends. Hope is here. Thankfully because of God’s great love for my family, and all of humanity, we have true hope.  Not the wishful thinking kind, but the dynamic, courageous, and powerful kind. We miss Sean more than words can communicate in a letter, but I know we will get to see Sean again–this is a great comfort to me. 

Sean—who was coined, “The Great Connector” —was a reflection of THE Great Connector. I write this Christmas letter because that is what Sean would want you to know. Sean had the joy of connecting people. There are countless stories of people who were joined because of Sean—countless people who were blessed by his humor and love. Still today, I hear stories of the far and wide-reaching impact Sean had on others. And the reason he had such an impact? Jesus. Sean loved and served people as an overflow of who he was in Christ. 

Sean loved Christmas. He believed in the Jesus we celebrate at Christmas. More than anything, that is what he would want—for you to know The Great Connector. Jesus, like no other, gathered people in and showed them the way to God. He came to connect us back to the Father—to bring us back to the Father’s heart of love. When we put our trust in Jesus, we are forgiven and grafted into God’s family—we become sons and daughters of God. My children now have stories that are marked with deep loss and pain. But that is not the whole of their stories. While we cannot deny the real anguish, sorrow, and grief that we are bearing every moment of every day, we must also confess that in Jesus what is more real is the hope that we have. Sorrow does not get to define us or have the final say in our lives. We are loved with a powerful love by a powerful God who will never forsake us, and we are experiencing his love and his blessings every day. 

So, friends, this Christmas and New Year may we rejoice and be glad in the knowledge that Jesus gave everything so we could be forgiven completely, loved completely, and bonded with him forever. Let us truly experience this hope that is here.

All my love,

Mel