Here we are once again, the happiest time of the year. It seems to come faster and faster as time goes by, and 2022 is no exception because ready or not, the holidays are upon us.
It’s everywhere. The lights, trees, music and everything else that comes with the season of joy. It’s like the season is in the air bringing goodness and cheer to everyone.
Wouldn’t it really be a wonderful life if that were true?
The reality is, many people will barely make it into 2023 unscathed. There are people struggling to get from the day before Thanksgiving to the day after New Year. Everyday is a battle of the mind and will to survive. Some are teetering on the edge of a breakdown, isolating for their mental and emotional safety.
This time of year seems to add to the pain of a life that has taken anunexpected turn. A tragic turn that has left pain so deep that surviving becomes effort. The season is an aching reminder of what has been lost, the reality of what was, and no longer is.
This is life for so many. Families that are broken sting with grief. Unexpected loss has robbed people of the life they had planned leaving a heaviness so great, moving forward no longer exists.
The thing is, the Christmas season was never meant to widen wounds and deepen pain. It was never meant to be a time that compounds hurts, and magnifies loneliness. It was never meant to be a cloud of darkness that weighs folks down. That Holy night was never meant to bring distress and immobilize. Funny what life has done to the most powerful day the world has ever seen.
Christmas is the day that brought hope to the hopeless. It was the day that the darkness was defeated and the light would forever prevail. The way of escape was born that Christmas Day over 2000 years ago. The day death met its match.
Long ago, Adam and Eve paved the way to a demise God never intended. The magnitude of their choice dragged all of humanity with them. But, on this day, this day we call Christmas, we got an amazing gift. This gift that never breaks down or goes out of style. This gift that never stops giving.
Christmas brought us the gift of life. New life. Eternal life. If only we’d receive it. If only we’d surrender and embrace the Blessed Hope that was born with everyone of us on His mind.
This perfect gift in an imperfect, messed-up world. No, it won’t bring back those we’ve lost and maybe we won’t see all that has been broken, ever restored. Our messy lives may stay messy and our struggles may not go away. But the hope we have in Jesus is like nothing you’ve ever known. The hope, strength and power of Jesus is the only reason for this season.
Maybe this is for you. Maybe you are stumbling through agonizing days. Maybe your life is spiraling out of control and the loss is unbearable. We have a hope that won’t return void and it came packaged to us that very first Christmas morning. Embrace the gift. Experience the season the way it was intended and begin to live anew.