‘Tis the season to be jolly’…. It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This is a season of celebration and festivities, and yet, we understand that this season may, for some, not always be filled with happiness and delight.
For some of us, Christmas may be stressful or sorrowful. There may be a loss, past or recent, that brings mixed emotions in this season. Perhaps there are financial difficulties which bring even more stress during the holidays. A broken family relationship or an adult child straying from the Lord might be causing pain and a yearning for changes that haven’t happened yet.
We see you. You are not alone. With joy also comes sorrow in this season. This fact is not only true now, but also during that first Christmas and those early years of Jesus’ life.
Imagine Joseph and his family. There must have been tension of some kind, within himself and with his family, knowing that he would get married to pregnant Mary. He was to become a husband and father so soon (Matthew 1:18-25).
Imagine traveling back to Bethlehem for a census. Simply because the Roman government wanted it. The politics of our day are nothing compared to those days (Luke 2:1-5).
Imagine the difficulty of finding a place to stay. Those who are traveling may understand the stresses and turmoil of travel and finding not a room in sight (Luke 2:7).
Imagine the wise men, preparing to leave their homeland, knowing they would be seen as foreigners as they passed through different lands. Imagine them realizing later the manipulation of a king who had evil intent in mind (Matthew 2:1-3).
Imagine Joseph and Mary’s escape to Egypt as refugees and all the slaughtered babies in Bethlehem and the devastation of those families (Matthew 2:13-16).
These were times of hardship and suffering, no doubt about it. Yet even in those times, joy could be found. Because of Jesus. Because of Immanuel, “God With Us.” How do we endure through sorrow and tough situations and still find joy? Knowing that God is with us through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. That is the hope of Christmas.
His love and faithfulness to us is immense and we know we can endure anything because He is by our side and we trust in the goodness of His plans for His glory and our good. This is the good news of the gospel. This is the good news of Christmas.
This is why we do what we do at Communitas. Because the world— our neighbors, our coworkers, our baristas, our postal workers, our doctors—need that hope and joy, only to be found in the knowledge of Jesus. To know Him is true joy, even in suffering and pain.
Our prayer is that you will feel that same joy and hope as you reflect on Jesus, God With Us, this season. May He bring you peace and strength even through the hard times, the rough patches, the suffering, and the trials that seem to never end. He sees you. He is holding you up. He is with you. Amid trees and presents and lights and cookies this season, remember that God will always be with you, even to the end of the age (Matthew 28:20).
