I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday with loved ones.
I have been very blessed this year to experience a new beauty with Christmas.
Christmas is a special time to many people. It also can be a really difficult time. Though I love Christmas, I can understand some of the pain that the holiday season brings about. It is a time when the brokenness and separation of our own lives becomes a bit more evident. Whether the brokenness is death of a loved one, a split relationship or a difficult relationship (even if that is with yourself), it seems like the difficulty at this time of year comes from relationship stress of varying magnitudes. Humanity struggles with relationships, as seen in the number of wars and strife, hate and hurt, broken marriages and disconnected family members and friends. There is hope.
Let me tell you something beautiful. This day, many years ago, Jesus the Christ was born. He came to bring life and relationship. Jesus says in John 10:10, "I came so that they may have life and life abundantly." Jesus came to give life, true life. The beauty of it is life is given through healed relationship. Jesus, son of God, took on human flesh so that he may sacrifice his life in order to reconcile the sin of humanity and create a pathway for us to have relationship with our heavenly Father. Only through his perfect sacrifice are we taken out of the equation. We no longer must work harder or be better. We only must be, and in doing so recognize that we are not enough, but we don't have to be, because Jesus was and is! He is our pathway. When we enter into this relationship with God, created through Jesus, we find life and life abundant. Life so full and so rich, we recognize that we need not suck up life from all our other relationships, we have all we need. Jesus is our final victory because his death on the cross conquered death and all the destruction and sin that reigns in us. This death and destruction is what causes brokenness in our world and in our lives. Jesus was victorious on the cross and enables us to live in victory as well. It is an incredible truth that never gets old or boring because each day it brings new freedom. And as beautiful as our salvation story with Jesus is, to fully grasp this we must understand what came at Christmas time.
Jesus is known in a lot of different ways (check out this website to see all the different ways he is known today). There are people who love Jesus and those who hate Jesus and then a bunch of people in between. In truth, I say that Jesus is God and son of God, he is also our incredible savior, he was a perfect example of human life, an incredible teacher, and at one point a mere baby.
I have always loved Christmas but never did I begin to grasp why the birth of Jesus was so special. I knew that the virgin birth was totally miraculous and that the prophesies of the old testament were perfectly coming true through this birth, but why was Jesus as a baby so amazing? In church a couple weeks ago the pastor spoke on the fragility of a baby and complex needs that a baby must have met for survival. This when it really struck me. Jesus, our Lord, put himself in the most fragile position, the most vulnerable state. He gave up oneness with God our Father to be human flesh. He did this, because he loves us. Love so sacrificial and so perfect that no human love can even come close. People may think that Jesus is a lot of things, and during the Christmas season, seeing Jesus as a baby is pretty common. But how often do we stop and think about what it meant for Jesus to be a baby?
Power beyond comprehension, Jesus laid it all down to be human and walk with us, laugh with us and cry with us. Jesus as a baby demonstrates so fully his humanity and thus his sacrifice in a very different way than I usually think of it. Jesus gave everything up to be with us, and heal broken relationships. He did this because he loves us, and to him, we are completely and wonderfully lovable.
Today, my wish for you is to find hope in this, to think on this and to rest in this. Jesus was born today, many years ago, so that we could have hope and see how beloved we are to God.
Merry Christmas!!
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