Christmas hope

What Christmas Actually Tells Us

5:33 PMHeather

The first candle was lit, flickering on its stand, on the right corner at church this last Sunday. I barely noticed it at first, looking instead to the large screen at center stage, displaying the words during worship. In between songs, I happened to look over toward the Christmas trees on the side, and there it was.

The tiny little flicker of light.

Dancing around, from the purple candle, the first one for advent. It's the candle representing hope.

I nearly missed it.

How many Christmas seasons do we nearly miss the pinprick of light that became a beacon for all of mankind?

How often do we rush from holiday gathering to shopping at the mall to decorating our homes, and never once stop to consider what the Christmas story actually tells us?

Therefore, holy brothers, you who share in a heavenly calling, consider Jesus....
Hebrews 3:1

We hear the story of the birth of Jesus, over and again, and our hearts grow callous to the mind-blowing truth of it.

Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash
 
Oh, but that we would consider Jesus.

In the middle of the silence of your life, that may feel like 400 years, waiting for God to show up. Yearning for God to speak and for promise to be fulfilled.  Maybe you, like the Israelites, are sitting in the darkness, missing the pillar of fire that used to lead them by night.

Wondering if the light will ever come again.

And while you sit and watch what's happening on center stage, distracted by the noise of the season, you miss the flicker of light that's beckoning you to consider Jesus.

What the Christmas story actually tells us is that he is the God who will enter right where we are, no matter the distance. It tells us that there is no sin where God can't show up. It tells us that there is no darkness that he won't come near, and there is no circumstance where he can't bring hope.

It tells us that he is the Father whose love will stretch through the deepest despair to rescue and deliver us. 

May we pause to truly ponder the magnitude of these truths.

The Almighty God dared to bring himself through his only Son. To walk where we walk. To be fully God and yet constrained by the frailty of flesh. Humbled as a man, though deity. 

The One who stood at the beginning of creation when it was uttered, "Let us create man in our image."

He is the Word, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

He wrapped himself up as a helpless baby. And he came quietly in the night, in a most unexpected way, to loudly proclaim that he always will.

For the dear one facing a scary diagnosis, consider Jesus.

Consider that just as he did before, he will come quietly in your dark night, in many unexpected ways, and this is the reason to find hope.

For the one facing her first Christmas without her dad, consider Jesus.

He is the one who left the glory of heaven to come to our broken world. And he will step right into your brokenness.

For the one I've never met who daily struggles against addiction, desperately wishing to build a life that can include her children.

Hear me clearly.

Consider Jesus. 

He is the Savior who dared to walk where we walk and to be tempted as we are tempted. He is the one who became the sinless sacrifice to cover all of ours sins. He is the great high priest who sympathizes with your wrestling. And he came as a baby to show you a love that says I will take every step with you. You are not alone. You are never alone.

When we stop to consider Jesus, to truly consider a tiny baby, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger, may our hearts swell with the hope this brings.

That God will always enter our darkness, no matter how difficult and desperate and seemingly hopeless the silence seems. 

He will come.

For he is Emanuel. 

God with us. 

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