Hope That Meets Us Here
Christmas. “The most wonderful time of the year.” When everything is just a little bit more bright and cheerful, when light and love abound . . . but what about when in the midst of the most wonderful time of the year, you feel anything but wonderful?
I heard someone once say that Christmas is a magnifier. It takes all the good feelings and experiences and makes them feel even better. But there are two sides to every coin and in the same way that it can make good things feel even better, it can also make difficult things feel harder. Sometimes the brighter the light, the darker the shadows feel. Sometimes the more joy and happiness we see around us, the more it accentuates the sadness and hurt inside of us.
Whether it’s watching families together and whole when maybe your own family feels broken and splintered…seeing people in love and getting engaged when you’ve hoped for the same thing but haven’t found it yet…or maybe it’s watching other parents give their children everything they wanted for Christmas when you can’t afford to give your kids what you would want to give them…the list goes on. Whatever the situation may be, Christmas can magnify difficult feelings.
This month I personally have been walking through a more difficult season, and in many ways, that difficulty has felt magnified by the happiness and joy around me. But somehow, in the midst of that, the Lord has been teaching me a whole new perspective about Christmas, and that is this: Christmas means hope.
We know the significance of Christmas: Jesus was born so that he could eventually die on the cross to save us from our sins. Christmas is important because it makes Easter possible. For us, Easter means victory, but Christmas . . . Christmas means hope.
When that baby was born that Christmas night, for the first time there was hope! The hope of eternal life, the hope of freedom from the weight of having to earn salvation, the hope of redemption, and a life with the Father. The people of Israel had been promised a Messiah who would save and deliver them, and Jesus would be the fulfillment of that promise. Hope was born. And one of the most profound aspects of that moment is this: hope was born here on earth. He came to us. Hope met the people of Israel right where they were, and in the same way, hope meets us right here where we are.
What a beautiful picture of the Father’s love, that he left his throne to come and dwell with us. He left perfection for brokenness. He left adoration and glory for persecution and shame. It says in Isaiah 9:6: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Wonderful Counselor. Mighty God. Everlasting Father. Prince of Peace.
Those are attributes of a God who meets us where we are. Who meets us in our confusion and is our Wonderful Counselor. Who meets us in our weakness and is our Mighty God. Who meets us when we feel broken and alone and is our ever-present, Everlasting Father. Who meets us when we’re gripped with fear and anxiety and is our Prince of Peace.
So if “the most wonderful time of the year” doesn’t feel too wonderful for you right now, take comfort in this. Because of Jesus, we can have hope even in the midst of the most difficult seasons: hope that we can make it through because He will never leave us or forsake us, hope that we will see the fulfillment of His promises to us because He is who He says He is . . . and hope that meets us here where we are through Jesus Christ our Savior, our Emmanuel, God with us.
Written by: Pastor Aria Walker