Christmas. So many things come to mind when I hear that word... hot cocoa, matching pajamas, quality time with family, presents, traditions, generosity, etc. So many good things. So many things to be happy about. Christmas is a time where the whole world seems to be merry or puts on a face like it is. But many times Christmas can be a reminder of loved ones lost, a reminder of deep pain, broken relationships, family strife. Inwardly we struggle but on the outside we try to keep a happy face on leaving us feeling lonely & depressed because even though we feel like we need to be merry and cheerful the reality is we aren’t. We’re human and we hurt. We hear about a little baby coming to earth...and we think “that’s sweet” but that news doesn’t seem to phase the reality we live in. But what if that news did? What if that news— Immanuel coming down in a form of a baby— was for real people and real humans who sinned, what if that news was for broken people who lost loved ones, for those who let bitterness destroy relationships, what if that news was for you in all your sin, and for me in all of mine? What if Christmas is merry not because of gingerbread houses and time snuggled up by a fireplace. What if it’s good news because a living God CAME to a broken world to live among us, to die for our sin which shatters every part of us, and be raised from the dead to offer humanity real hope and real joy. Giving us a hope and a reason to rejoice not because of the reality we live in but because HE meets us in our reality & offers us a hope that goes beyond our reality, HIMSELF. Christmas is merry because Jesus Christ came to earth and made it possible to know Him. Because He came not to call the righteous but the SINNERS TO REPENTANCE. So when tears are shed and my heart is hurting I can rejoice in the good news of Christmas. xoxo Kale.
[side rant] sometimes I dislike how our readings of the Christmas story sound like a fairytale and we almost make Mary, Joseph, and a Baby in a manger sound like a bedtime story for kids. When in reality there was a woman who could have gotten herself stoned and was probably the gossip of the town, a man who at first thought his bride-to- be cheated on him, and a King who left all His riches and lay in a trough for animals. Like seriously can you even imagine having a kid in a barn and laying him in an animal trough? That doesn’t sound like a reality I would like to live and it doesn’t sound like a fairytale. Thankful to a God who knows us & offers real hope and light in this DARK world.
