12/09/2022
šš¼ a great reminder Christmas is about HOPE.
We tend to think Christmas is about merry making.
But life is hard, isnāt it?? I canāt think of anyone who isnāt struggling through something.
I have a friend attempting to repair her marriage after betrayal.
I have a friend with aging parents and a father in and out of the hospital.
I have a friend struggling to parent her young adult children, trying to find the balance between helping and letting go while watching them flounder through some very hard circumstances.
I have a friend who lost a coworker to su***de.
I have a friend with a mother who stopped talking to her, and sheās reeling over abandonment in the middle of her own adult life.
Weāre ALL struggling.
Then Christmas sweeps in with its twinkly lights and cozy commercials and comfort foods, and we donāt feel much like making merry. We just feelā¦sad.
Life doesnāt look the way it is āsupposed toā look. And everywhere we turn, commercials play Christmas music with beautiful images of tender family moments and all those twinkly lights, and we think, āMy life isnāt anything like that.ā And it hurts.
Butā¦
Isnāt THAT what Christmas is about??
I saw something the other day about how āthe first Christmas was simple.ā But was it? I bet Mary didnāt think so.
Traveling on a donkey at full term. All those people milling about and no place to stay. A baby born in a barn to this young family struggling in the middle of a desperately broken world. I canāt imagine any of it was warm and cozy. And certainly not simple.
I bet it smelled. I bet Mary screamed. I bet baby Jesus cried as she struggled to nurse him. I bet there was blood and dirt and tears and donkey p**p. And I bet she wondered what in the world she was doing there. Why her???
The Christmas Story isnāt about twinkly lights or making merry. And though the promises are everywhere, itās not about making it āsimpleā either. Not really.
Christmas is about HOPE.
Grace and Truth arrived on Christmas to say, āI know itās hard. I know you are struggling. I know you feel like you have nowhere else to turn. And you didnāt think life would look anything like this. But Iām here now. Iām here forever. Iām here for YOU. Comeā¦follow me.ā
It's true, Christmas wonāt āfixā everything. It wonāt magically transform your life into one of those warm, cozy Folgers commercials. It wonāt make everything easier or anywhere close to what you thought it might be. He told us this life is hard.
But He promises weāll never struggle alone.
Yes, Christmas is all about Hope ā¤
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