Thoughts on Christmas

If Christmas is the happiest time of the year, why do so many struggle through it? Tis’ the season to be jolly. Peace on earth . . . good will toward men . . .

Here comes Santa Claus, but Santa Claus is unemployed or broke. It’s a wonderful time of year . . . for family, but what to do about the empty chair?

It’s easy to forget that the celebration is all about the completion of God’s promise of deliverance. The birth of baby Jesus was confirmation of the love of God. Jesus was born to be humiliated and to suffer excruciating pain and to die to free us from the chains of sin and death that were placed upon us all by the deceit of satan and the weakness of Adam. From the very beginning God loved us with a love only He was capable of, a love that would lead him to bring His Son into the world for this purpose of humiliation, pain and death to rescue us from the hate and the evil that surrounds us. This is the cute little, sweet little baby Jesus whose birth we celebrate during this season.

The magnitude of this birth brings to this season an amplification of EVERYTHING, the good and the bad. The good things are extremely good and bring about a happiness and delight that can’t be matched at any other time of year. The flip side is that the bad things, the things that hurt the most rise up in our emotions and are overpowering. The negatives in our lives always get top billing and that is why it is necessary for us to pray a prayer of thanks every night to remind ourselves of the good things that occurred.  Otherwise we will not even remember them, much less realize how many more good things there were than bad and how much more important the good things were in our day. The greater the grief in the loss of a loved one, the greater the gift that was given us through that loved one.  It is important to celebrate the gift as much as possible over grieving for the loss.

The birth of this Baby Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah), is the reason for celebration and His birth is the source of our hope in God and His salvation for mankind. It’s ok to be sad and to grieve, but try to remember this birth opens the door that gives you the ability to experience the love of those you have lost again so that death, although painful, is a temporary separation for those who will simply accept the gift that God Almighty gave us through this birth of salvation and love. Satan brought pain and death and sorrow.  Satan’s interference in God’s beautiful creation brought us unemployment and sickness and our other life problems and he encourages our misery. We can and should deal with our problems the best we can and lean on God and His mercy and grace for help and sustenance.  God is love and His love is real and can overcome the most hurtful situations that can be encountered in this life under the sun.

When we wish you a Merry Christmas, let it be so. This birth brought us joy and is the answer for our sorrow!