When Christmas isn’t “Merry” or “Bright”

It can feel very discouraging to not feel joyful when things are supposed to be “merry and bright.” So many of the songs, movies, advertisements, and Christmas pajamas tout this verbiage: Christmas is a time to be cheerful, a time when “troubles will be far away.”

If you’re like us, you probably play along: selfie with a reindeer, sing some of the songs, watch your favorite Christmas movie, make all the foods, take Christmas photos – “Everyone smile for the camera. Fingers out of your brother’s nose.”

We hold tightly to our traditions, because we think they will make us feel happy. We want to feel like everything is okay, like nothing has changed, like nothing has gone awry.

It’s not that these things are wrong, but they were never intended to be the source of our Christmas joy. In fact, they rarely go according to plan. And when our holiday expectations are unmet, we are often left disappointed.

The joy of homemade pecan pie doesn't last all year. (Perhaps a day or two at best.) Festivities don’t bring us ultimate joy. True and lasting joy is always and only found in Christ, even when Christmas isn't “Christmasy.”

For some of you, this is the first Christmas since a loved one has died. For others, there’s a broken family in the rearview mirror. Some are worried about your children’s health or salvation. Many of you have walked through difficult surgeries, or walked with others as they were in pain. There are financial burdens and emotional burdens and work burdens and burdens that are difficult even to identify.

There’s often more grit and grime in our lives than the holidays can overshadow; there’s more brokenness in our own hearts than a few favorite Christmas songs can fix.

But, take heart. This is Christmas. And Christmas is about joy and hope.

This joy does not always feel like warm fuzzies, it is not always wrapped in a neat package (you know the kind: under the tree with recycled wrapping paper). The hope of Christmas was found in a feeding trough, wrapped in swaddling cloths – Emmanuel, who bore our pains to free us from them.

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. We were given this hope when we were saved.

Romans 8:18, 22-24 NLT

Paul’s words aren’t meant to be a patch-fix. Neither are they intended to gloss over pain or diminish tragedy. Ultimately, they were written to help us place our suffering into the hands of the One who suffered for us.

They were written that we might be full of hope. Those who are in Christ will one day be free from all the suffering we experience in this world. We will be free from the grip and effects of sin. Our hope is for the coming glory to overshadow our sufferings.

That’s why we celebrate that the infinite Son of God took on the finite flesh of an infant. The God-Babe grew into a boy then into a man who, for our sake, experienced the lowest of all lows to defeat sin and death.

Jesus is our hope and joy. Both in this life and in future glory. You, me – we are are waiting for the time when sin and everything it touches no longer touches anything at all. And because we trust and eagerly hope for this joyous day, we can extend peace and have a holly, jolly Christmas.

Though our lives are not Hallmark approved, we can genuinely celebrate because we have true and ultimate hope, true and ultimate joy – a love despite our mess, a future without sorrow, a salvation graciously extended to us through Jesus.

So sing a few Christmas songs. Wear an ugly sweater that says “jolly.” And please, please eat some pecan pie.

The Merriest of Christmases to You,

The Dillards

A Translation 150 Years in the Waiting...

In a place where it is winter for literally half of the year, with snow covering the earth upwards of 6 feet, live a hunter-gatherer people known as the Khanty.

The Khanty are known to be brave, solemn and hardworking, showing little emotion.

They are also known for reindeer herding.

Located in Siberia, perhaps this place is a bit like a real-life Narnia before Aslan and the White Witch have their showdown – “It is always winter but never Christmas” here. (C.S. Lewis fans rejoice. All others may read The Chronicles of Narnia.)

Of these 32,000 people, there are so few Christians that they are considered to be “unreached” with respect to the Gospel.

The Khanty language has been waiting on a complete translation of Scripture since 1868, when bible stories and portions of Scripture were first translated into the language.

Recently Wycliffe Associates held a MAST Translation event: a two week translation workshop where church leaders among the Khanty gathered alongside Wycliffe team members to translate the Bible in their local language.

And that’s what they did.

Luke, James and 1 John were translated entirely. The so-called “People of the Forest” have now become a “People of the Word.”

For people who do not overtly display their emotions, many were overcome with tears of joy.

Wycliffe Associates even provided the Khanty people with tablets, translation recording equipment, and internet access.

This equipment will allow them access to resources that support the efficiency and accuracy of the translation process in the months and years to come.

One of these tools includes the Greek Lexicon Stephen is working on, which gives mother tongue translators – like the Khanty at the translation workshop – a simple, accessible, and accurate definition and explanation of every Greek word in the New Testament.

Our prayer is that our project and others like it will enable the Khanty to translate, read and understand God’s word in their native language, and so be transformed by the freedom found in the gospel.

Thanks be to God for sending his Son to save the Khanty.

Thanks be to God for speaking to his people – in the language of our hearts and theirs.

“Of Jesse's lineage coming. As men of old have sung.

It came, a flower bright. Amid the cold of winter.”

How many languages are spoken in Mexico?

While Spanish is the most common language spoken in Mexico, it is not the only one...

There are at least 288 spoken languages in Mexico, including 67 nationally recognized languages.

Of these 288 languages, there are:

• 46 languages whose Scripture status is unknown,

• 47 languages lacking a complete Old and New Testament translation, and

• 24 languages without any Scripture whatsoever.

And these numbers represent people –– people who lack access to Scripture in the language they speak at home and in the local marketplace.

For us, more than the surprise of the vast number of languages spoken in what is considered to be a "Spanish-speaking" country, we were also saddened by the vast number of people who haven't read the Good News in their mother tongue.

In Mexico alone, there are well over 100,000 people without access to the Bible in their heart language.

Wycliffe Associates’ goal is to translate Scripture into every one of those languages, and they recently held a MAST translation workshop where 22 church leaders from 6 indigenous languages in Mexico began translating the New Testament.

Although this was only a short, two-week translation workshop, in their eagerness and excitement to read God’s word in the language of their heart, these native translators completed both Mark and 1 Timothy.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus begins his public ministry by declaring, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

For the first time, some of our neighbors in Mexico are able to read in their own language the good news of Jesus, the one who takes upon himself the sins of the world. This is the good news they have been waiting to read and understand.

Praise the Lord for his faithfulness in fulfilling his promise to rescue his people!