Joy at Christmas Despite the Circumstances

Last year, at our church’s Candlelight Christmas Eve service, I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to my family as we were all getting settled in our seats. She commented on our four children and said she had four grown kids of her own. Then, she went on to say that her youngest was going to be spending Christmas away with her boyfriend’s family instead of her own. This sweet mom, I could see that she was just beside herself as she went on to explain more about her circumstances for the next few minutes. The frustration poured out of her. She just wanted all of her children home for Christmas. I’ve wondered about her as Christmas draws near this year. I wonder if she found a way to enjoy last Christmas with her family, despite not having their youngest home. I wonder if this year, she is again met with the same overwhelming feelings of her family growing into a different stage and distraught over the changes to tradition.

It’s easy to find the negative during the holidays, isn’t it? It should be the opposite. We should be filled to the brim with Christmas Cheer and the spirit of giving, right? What about when that feels like that can’t be you this time around? What if you’re feeling like the world is against you and you just need all of these things to fall into place to have a Happy Christmas?

Maybe we don’t get to see family we might have seen every year but this one, or maybe we are seeing family that aren’t easy to be around. Perhaps a grandchild lives across the country and your heart aches at the thought of not being with them. Maybe it’s an estranged child with whom you are desperate for a restored relationship with, a parent who causes you pain and frustration to be around, an empty Christmas tree skirt that you long to fill with gifts for the family and children you dream of having one day. We may be struggling financially, we might be suffering with an illness or missing a loved one who is no longer with us. We could be facing a lot of uncertainty and feel the weight of that pressing down on our shoulders. You could be wondering when things will get better, when you will be able to feel the joy and wonder that we typically expect to feel during this season.

I know people who are going through really hard things this season. I know it’s not always easy to cast the worry aside or to accept that Christmas might look very different this year. I also know, that our hope, joy, and peace can’t be dependent on the outcome of our Christmas expectations. The gifts, the family, the traditions. All of that only matters because of this one truth: that Jesus was sent to this Earth to save us. Holy and perfect, humble and mighty, our Savior wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger.

All the noise and stress that you’re holding onto this season, it can be pushed out with the gift of hope that we were given those two thousand years ago. The shepherds, the wisemen, even Mary herself, they might sound like the same old, dusty story you’ve heard a million times. They aren’t an ancient fairytale, they are part a promise fulfilled by God! How incredible is that? How in awe we should feel when we hear about the birth of our King that night so long ago? Put your hope in that truth this Christmas. The truth that, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”-John 3:16-17

Whether you’ve been knocked down and you’re just scrambling to get by, or things are going better than you ever could have imagined this Christmas, the one thing in this world that remains the same, that will never faulter and that we can always put our faith and hope in, is the gift of Jesus Christ. We get to live our lives in His presence. Even knowing this and believing it to the greatest depth of our being, we are still human. Life gets messy, our Christmases get chaotic, and before we know it, we can feel so far from the joy we know should be filling our hearts.

But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”-Luke 2: 10-11

There is so much bad news in the world, and through that lens things look so bleak. I believe we weren’t meant to have a lens that sees all of the world’s troubles at once, but here we are. In this time, in this place. So, what do we do about it? We remember first, the GOOD NEWS. The good news that was delivered to us through an actual, real-life angel. The good news that our Savior was born! He was born into this world and He is still here. We are connected to him forever through the Holy Spirit. We aren’t alone and we aren’t forgotten. We just need to remind ourselves of the most incredible Christmas gift that we’ve ever received.

I’m not sure if I’ll ever see her again, but I hope that sweet mother I spoke to last Christmas has found joy, despite her circumstances. I know that we all get disappointed in life, and that sometimes these disappointments can consume us if we let them. If you’re feeling weary and wondering, “Where is it? Where is the joy and the peace? How can I be joyful in these circumstances?” Pray without ceasing that you will feel it, that you will be flooded with the joy, peace, and hope that Jesus brought into this world. This Christmas, I pray that we’ll be able to chase after the promise of joy and that we will prepare the room in our hearts to let them overflow with it. That we will look at the Christmas Story with a new lens, not glancing past it, but truly pondering in our hearts the gift we were given.

Luke 2:19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.