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.
Comments