I hope you will forgive me for the sad title of this post, and at a time of year when everyone is trying to be merry and happy. It just seems fitting to acknowledge that there are many people who do not feel so upbeat during the Christmas season. Anyone who’s occupied this planet for a few decades probably has some sadness mixed in with their holiday cheer… death of a loved one, regrets, memories that will never be experienced again, etc.
The birth of Jesus brought a mixed bag. It was “good tidings of great joy” to some. To others it set in motion events that would end in the death of their children, and “lamentation, weeping, and great mourning…refusing to be comforted.”
Jesus came to bring redemption. But in the plush, middle-class affluent, comfortable world in which I live, I sometimes forget that there are things – universal and personal curses – from which I must be redeemed. Could it be that my merry-ness causes me to glaze over the desperate need for a savior?
Somewhere between chocolate and egg nog (the soy version), I think I’ll allow myself to indulge my more introspective side. To feel the pain of this fallen world and my own shortcomings… so I can truly be thankful that Messiah has come. The situation would be infinitely worse without Him.