Time for a confession: I’m having a hard time with joy today. I’ve got aches where I should have pains and pains where I used to only have aches. It’s a little dreary outside, and every time I log in to Facebook, I see a prayer request for another bad situation.
Lives lost too soon.
Families left behind.
Wildfires are running rampant.
Inoperable brain tumors.
Brilliant minds are succumbing to dementia.
Children left without a father.
And that’s just the lives of people I know personally. In the rest of the world, things seem far worse. War. Churches are bombed. Children buried under rubble. Brothers and sisters executed for their faith.
Bad news seems to be relentless. It can be hard to keep your head above water when there is another wave crashing down right after this one.
Of course, there was also Mary, bringing a new messiah into an honor-based society. She loses her reputation, her home, and all sense of what the future for a Jewish girl might look like. Joseph, who agrees to be a step-dad to God’s son, loses his home as his family becomes refugees in a foreign land. Wise magi, seeking to worship a new king, suddenly have to change direction for fear of their lives. God, providing the Way, Truth & Life, gives up his son, knowing it will bring pain and death. Sweet
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash
Christmas joy reminds us that we have more than what we experience in our secular lives.
Baby Jesus, leaving the glory of the trinity and all he knows, to be one of us.
But it’s into this mess that Christmas comes. And that, friends, is where hope and joy are found. The gospel’s promise isn’t that we would never know pain or suffering but that he has seen our suffering, knows our pain, and has entered into it with us (I know you know this. I’m just reminding myself). The wonder of Christmas is that the Almighty God came down and is here with us. When we cried out for help, He came.
The joy of our salvation was born that first Christmas. This fragile infant is our
rescuer sent from heaven, our help that we can turn to in times of deepest need. A baby and a promise of aid. When the stuff you are going through obscures your joy, remember this: Christ has come. Christ has risen. And Christ will come again.
He will wipe away every tear from every eye at just the right time. There will be no more sorrow, grief, and pain. Sickness and death will be cast aside. We are (present tense) with God and in his presence. Sin and darkness can not dwell there.
Though the sorrow may last for a night, joy comes in the morning. Christmas morning is coming, but there is an even better morning yet to come. That really is “good news of great joy.”
Keep praying, It won’t be long now and even if it is—He is with us.