Christmas: Finding Light in the Darkness

Christmas. What’s the first thing that comes to mind about Christmas for you? Is it the peaceful nativity scene of baby Jesus? Is it the joyful carols that we sing? What about the many feasts that we’ll be eating during this time? Or is it the season of giving and the many presents that come with it?

As I look around the malls filled with decorations and laughter during this season, I can’t help but think this is also a tough time for many people who are feeling lonely or hopeless. For some, it may be financial hopelessness, for others it may be hopelessness related to their health or job and security or relationships. Still others may be in situations I can’t even begin to describe. Or this may be a time when you realize the people who you love the most are missing from your family gathering.

Over 2000 years ago, the first Christmas was in fact one of great angst, great darkness and great desperation. Jesus came at a time when Jews were under incredible oppression. The Jews were suffocating under the weight of persecution from Rome. He came not into the world’s best situation, but into a dark and hopeless time.

That same hope is relevant today. There is a tremendous sense of anxiety and fear around us when we look at news headlines about North Korea, political upheaval, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, ISIS, or what’s happening in various places of the Middle East. We are living in a time of great uncertainty that can lead people to places of despair. But thank God this is not the end. He didn’t leave us here in our hopelessness. When you least expect it, God shows up. Just as He did that one Christmas long ago. Jesus came to bring hope to the hopeless, to bring light into darkness.

Just a few months ago, if you had asked me if I was hopeful about my youngest daughter, Emily, I would have said “most days”. Sometimes I felt incredibly hopeless. Emily began a journey into spiritual rebellion in 2015. I would often plead with God to rescue her. I began to lose hope. I started to doubt God. Not His ability to rescue but His willingness to rescue. I was sinking into deeper hopelessness when it came to my own daughter. But God in His sovereignty, showed up in His perfect timing and Emily is now on the road to complete healing and restoration, pointed in the right direction.

As much as Christmas is a time of celebration, it’s also a time when some feel heaviness. Could that be you today? If you too are in a place of despair, know that God can move when you least expect it. Jesus came unexpectedly many years ago bringing hope to a difficult time. Today, He continues to bring the same hope to us. In our brokenness, He’s here inviting us to Himself. Let that truth encourage you this Christmas.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30