There’s a lot of vague speech sometimes in the Christian “churchianity” culture that’s been created, and to be frank with you, so many days I get out of bed as the gray daylight pours into my bedroom and I’m wading in discouragement. I am discontent. Many days I don’t know why, or what I can do to fix it.
Sometimes I let the discontentment sit. Sometimes I find the energy to seek some sense of hope, and when I search, sadly I'm often met with vague, empty attempts at encouragement.
You know… the “God keeps His promises; just be happy; just trust in God’s plan (so your feelings don’t matter)” type of encouragement. And while they have good intentions, they often fail in their attempts to do any good… especially in the midst of an isolated, depressive, and trauma-filled season as we’ve had.
I get frustrated at these things and suddenly, but rarely, a day like today comes around where our society pauses for a moment and I can take a step back to realize the significance of the love that the Father has for us.
Christmas is the celebration of Christ Jesus Himself coming to be with us, become one of us, to teach us, to love us, and to be the sacrificial lamb of God to take on the sin of the world so that we may be called blameless and forgiven, washed as pure as the snow falling peacefully outside my bedroom window.
So yes, we have hope. But it isn’t a vague, cliché, keep-your-head-up aimless kind of hope.
We have hope because we are invited and welcomed into the grand and beautiful story of God where His love for us was actually acted out in the display of love that is Jesus Christ.
He’s the long-awaited lamb of God that would take the sin of the world on His shoulders. The fulfillment of a promise — a promise that a sacrifice would come to restore a broken relationship between God and His people, and a promise that has not expired.
As the timeless hymn humbly declares, “Come, thou long expected Jesus / Born to set thy people free / From our fears and sins release us / Let us find our rest in thee”
Today is about the birth of Jesus Christ and the true hope He is — one that offers grace and healing for the isolated, depressive, and trauma-filled people we are.
May we find rest in that promise.
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