The Light Has Come
“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned." Isaiah 9:2
It's hard to believe that December is here with the hustle and bustle having already begun. With our calendar already full of events, celebrations of birthdays and graduations, Christmas programs, parties, etc., I have already found myself frantically coordinating all of our schedules so that we could schedule in our family Christmas.
As much as I love Christmas, I fight being overwhelmed with schedules, purchasing and wrapping Christmas gifts, family traditions of baking and making candy, getting the Christmas cards out, and anything else that gets added to the schedule. If I am not careful, my focus will shift from celebrating Jesus' birth to an anxiety filled December with all my joy, peace, and hope of the season waning and the darkness of sadness and depression attempting to overshadow me.
“I think secretly we all dream of a Hallmark perfect Christmas where everything goes smoothly and all our plans and festivities come off without a hitch. We want a month of peaceful bliss with sugarplums dancing in our heads and a Christmas with no distractions,”
I think secretly we all dream of a Hallmark perfect Christmas where everything goes smoothly and all our plans and festivities come off without a hitch. We want a month of peaceful bliss with sugarplums dancing in our heads and a Christmas with no distractions, chaos, stress, sickness, death, depression, crime, or evil in the world. But, in all reality, we know that world does not exist.
Isaiah spoke of the people walking in darkness. You see, the Jews had believed prophecy after prophecy that the Messiah would come but he had not yet appeared. In fact, there had been silence--no word from God for four hundred plus years. I can’t imagine such a time. I am sure the silence was deafening and they must have wondered if the prophecies would ever come to pass.
God had a plan. At the right time, that plan began to unfold. You would think that when Jesus came, all the world would be right with peace reigning in the land. However, that was not the case. In fact, things were not good at all. The Romans ruled and charged outrageous taxes. Herod demanded a census be taken hence making the journey to Bethlehem difficult and risky for a young pregnant girl and her husband. And, even after Jesus was born, things didn't get better - they got worse. Herod commanded all the young baby boys to be slaughtered in hopes to kill this long-awaited Messiah that would come.
When my mind began racing with all of the craziness of the month, the thought occurred to me that when Jesus came, the world wasn't suddenly transformed to a peaceful, perfect land. But Peace came. The Jews hope of an end of the Roman dictatorship did not happen. But Hope came.
So, as we begin the celebration of this wondrous season, let us remember that Jesus is that Light Isaiah spoke of who would come to this earth as a baby in the manger. The purpose of His coming was not to change our world to a picture-perfect Hallmark movie. No. Jesus came to walk with us in the middle of our circumstances-good or bad. He is the object of our affection and celebration. He is our Hope. He is our Peace. Let us not lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas.
Jesus taught the disciples that their worth to God was more than the sparrows – and Jesus said that God does not forget the sparrow. Jesus then went on to say that God knows the number of hairs on each head.