Embracing “Tidings of Comfort and Joy”

Some Christmas song lyrics are cycling in my head almost every day: “God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay…” and “O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy…”

This December has brought into sharp focus the reality of death and the uncertainties about the plans we make for ourselves and for our families. Within a week, two elders who were dear friends of mine left their spouses, families, and communities grieving their sudden passing.

It makes me wonder if my plans for Christmas and for my family will be altered just as suddenly. Would I embrace the “tidings of comfort and joy” in similar circumstances?

Goyce Kakegamic was a brother who had limitless energy and drive for ideas and ideals that really mattered to him. His zeal for the needs of his fellow indigenous community members, his passion for the church community he helped establish, his love for his own family energized him like few others I have known. He found ways to move people and to steer resources toward the things he really believed in.

I really admire such energy and passion. I affirm and applaud the many goals Goyce reached, and the people he encouraged along the way. He seemed to know everyone, and found ways to link people together to accomplish things. Goyce made a significant difference in this world.

Jim Keesic was an easy-going and friendly brother whom I have known for many years. I learned to know him while working together in the process of the translation and production of the Ojibway language version of the New Testament. I learned so much from him in that context.

Jim loved his ethnic roots and his language. He had a vocabulary in that language that is unique to his generation and to those for whom a language is one’s heart language, one’s mother tongue. He never stopped encouraging me and affirming me in my attempts to be fluent in his language.

Jim joined in a new venture in 2005, when he became a founding board member of Living Hope Native Ministries. I remember his initial hesitance to formally commit to the project, even though he was enthusiastic about its value. At first, his advice and wisdom were worded in terms of “you.” Then he began slipping up, and saying “we.” When he caught himself saying “we” he laughed and said, “Osaam waahsa intishaa.” (Now I’ve gone too far.)

Jim became a passionate supporter and wise builder in the formation of that ministry, and even served as chairman of the board for a time. He never stopped believing in the cause and the reasons for working together in sharing the Gospel and encouraging the development of local churches. Jim made a significant difference in this world.

Both Goyce and Jim were confident in their own skins, quite sure of their own roles in this world and in the meaning and purpose of life. Neither one seemed afraid of or intimidated by those in other ethnic groups. Both Jim and Goyce freely expressed their critiques and affirmations to me as one would to a peer. I deeply respect that. I will miss that.

I can’t imagine the emptiness and void that Lucy and the family feel or the ways that Mary and the family grieve with these sudden losses. I only pray that the message, the tidings of “comfort and joy” are something tangible and lifegiving in a Christmas season that, for these families, will be like no Christmas before this one.