CHRISTMAS IS A TIME OF JOY!!!

-----except when it isn't.

A woman is grieving over a brother who has had a debilitating stroke. He may not make it to Christmas. If he does it will likely be his last. Another woman is awaiting the results of a cancer test. It would be the second instance of cancer for her in the last four years. One gentleman is losing his ability to walk. Another fellow faces his first Christmas in sixty four years without his beloved wife. Instead of the festivities and joy she infused into the holiday for him, he has only the jarring memory of her recent death. The list of Christmas time concerns goes on and on. These are not just random things that I know of, either. These are things happening right here where I live and minister. So many here have lost the joy of Christmas and have replaced it with grief and sadness and concern and fear. And it has been this way for generations. People wanting the joy of Christmas but instead finding pain and desperation.

Some try to push through the gloom. Pretty lights, festive decorations, shopping, familiar carols. All of those things that have marked the joy and fun Christmases of the past. But when your heart is breaking or your worry runs deep, nothing can lift you up.

Sometimes Christmas is ruined forever. One gentleman in a church I pastored years ago sat in a hospital room watching his beloved dying on Christmas Day. He said to me as he watched her struggle to breathe, "Pastor, Christmas will never be good again." A pastor who suffered a terrible auto accident on Christmas Eve told me from an ER cot on Christmas Day that Christmas would never be joyful again. 

As you go through life you find that the dark clouds of despair that come upon you at times throughout the year are even darker and more ominous when they drift in on Christmas. Where is the joy? Where is that light hearted feeling? Where is the hope and wonder? Where is, well, the Christmas spirit?

So, has it ever crossed your mind that maybe Christmas really isn't for the kids or for those who are, even if just temporarily, carefree? Maybe, just maybe, Christmas is for the hopeless. Maybe it is for those who are beaten down. Maybe it is for those who have lost that elusive 'spirit.'

The Jews expected Messiah to come in royal themes to throw off the hated Roman overlords. The Jewish Zealots were tired of waiting for Messiah and were beginning to commit small acts of terror. Whole groups of Jews, out of despair, were beginning to believe Messiah would never come. The local ruler, an appointee of the emperor, was unspeakably evil and mean. It was no wonder that the people were on edge and ready for revolt. A man had escorted his betrothed over ninety miles on foot over rough and treacherous terrain based on a dream he had and a story she told. That man, Joseph, had to be having some doubts. A group of shepherds were settling in for another night in the open, smelling their sheep, feeling the weariness that comes from laboring in a nasty, dead end job. Despair, fear, disillusionment, hate and doubt. Above all, a sense of hopelessness. 

Into this brew of despondency, a Child was born. In time, He was rejected by most, but He came to infuse hope into a hopeless situation. His birth, what we call Christmas, was never intended to create Santa Claus or discounts on TVs or extreme online shopping. Messiah came for those who are hurting, for those who are struggling to overcome. Messiah came to offer life eternal, but He also came to bring hope back into shattered lives. Messiah came...for you.

Consider: Jesus Christ, Immanuel, the Son of the living God, the Prince of Light and Peace, stepped down from His home and position in heaven to be born into a world without hope, a world of despair, OUR personal world, and He did this because He loves us. That stroke victim may die, cancer may take hold, death, or the memory of death, may dog us, physical infirmities may pull at our bodies. But that doesn't mean a bad Christmas. It means we can feel the comfort of our Lord. His gift to us.

So, with the understanding of all of this, I wish you all a Merry Christmas. With that, I pray you count as your best gift, the gift of a loving Savior.

CHRISTMAS IS A TIME OF JOY!!!

Blessings.