Galatians 4:4-7 Amplified Bible
4 But when [in God’s plan] the proper time had fully come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the [regulations of the] Law, 5 so that He might redeem and liberate those who were under the Law, that we [who believe] might be adopted as sons [as God’s children with all rights as fully grown members of a family]. 6 And because you [really] are [His] sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying out, [a]“Abba! Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave (bond-servant), but a son; and if a son, then also an heir through [the gracious act of] God [through Christ].
Word of God for the Children of God
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Contrary to the festive and joyous and uplifting songs of the season, sadly sometimes, for some, Christmas doesn’t feel merry or worth celebrating.
You listen and say to yourself,
“But, Christmas time doesn’t feel that way. This year Christmas doesn’t feel merry at all!”
I’ve never heard anyone say it, but have felt it profoundly:
“I just don’t feel Christmas-y.”
This feeling can mean so many things:
- I’m not feeling the emotions that are supposed to go along with this holiday.
- I don’t feel worthy to participate in the celebrations and gifts.
- I hurt, but Christmas doesn’t have room for my pain with its bright lights and happy songs.
- God is not going to listen to my crying, nor touch my tears, care about my soul.
Maybe your heart aches, too.
We struggle under the weight of brokenness, grief, acute chronic debilitating health illness, or even sin, carrying the effects of the fall around like a blanket.
We miss loved ones!
Maybe the engagement ring we’ve been hoping for (and the young man to go with it) still hasn’t shown up.
Our arms are still empty and our heart cries out for our distant family.
Maybe our marriage is struggling and there isn’t “peace on earth” in our home.
This could be our first year without a parent, spouse, or child because of death or relational collapse.
Maybe our beloved has been deployed by the armed forces and cannot be home for the holidays.
We, or someone we love, may have been diagnosed with a devastating disability or debilitating illness.
Maybe a history of abuse, addiction, injury, or trauma colors over the bright lights of mirth.
MAYBE it’s “just” hormones leaving you feeling grumpy and not in the mood for lights, tinsel, and Christmas festivities, delicious cookies, and the turkey’s.
My friends and readership, I have no idea the trials you face this year as you put up decorations, consume copious amounts of sugar, choose the perfect present, drink eggnog or whatever or however your cultural traditions celebrate .
But, I want you to know you are not alone.
And you are not outcast, because you don’t feel “Merry and Bright.”
God hears you loud and clear!
Psalm 40 The Message
40 1-3 I waited and waited and waited for God.
At last he looked; finally he listened.
He lifted me out of the ditch,
pulled me from deep mud.
He stood me up on a solid rock
to make sure I wouldn’t slip.
He taught me how to sing the latest God-song,
a praise-song to our God.
More and more people are seeing this:
they enter the mystery,
abandoning themselves to God
1. Remember, Christmas is especially for the heart that doesn’t feel merry.
The ache of our souls dims the glitter and glamor of the season, allowing the light of the Savior to shine through.
Suffering requires us to pray constantly, feel our need for Savior in fresh ways.
If (or when) we don’t feel worthy of the specialness and gifts that come in the holiday season, the truth of the Gospel becomes more real.
I desperately need my Savior.
I need someone to heal the brokenness wracked by the fall. I need someone to to trust, walk with me as I navigate my pain, helping me carry these burdens.
The celebration of Jesus’ birth is undeniably beautiful because He is beautiful.
My weakness, frailty, and woundedness cannot harm the message of the love, hope and joy this season brings. Instead, the fact that Christmas wont always feel merry, allows me to look again at the wonder of Emmanuel, God with us.
Nothing in me brought about Christmas, and nothing in me detracts from God’s greatest heaven sent experience gifted to us, born with all its angelic splendor.
Luke 2:8-18 English Standard Version
The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”[a]
15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. 17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. 18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
In those Christmas moments where we don’t feel merry, God has gives us hope.
Our joy and affection for Him can grow stronger in this time of year, even if we feel ostracized from the merriment that’s supposed to be the daily experience.
2. When Christmas does not feel merry, accept the reality of brokenness.
Your ache this Christmas stems from the brokenness. We feel the weight of fractured relationships, abuse, addiction, trauma, death, loss, uncertainty, illness, caregiver overload, and exhaustion. We live in a sin-scarred world.
You were created for paradise.
Our souls know we were not created for a broken world.
We long for Eden intensely, especially when hearing refrains of “peace on earth, goodwill toward men” drift through the air.
The deep desire of your soul for connection, safety, love, and peace point to a greater reality. Jesus does not intend to leave his people in a place of ruin and suffering from all the recurring visions of unsightly wreckage all around us.
Yet, for many, such visions of ugliness and the measures of pain and difficulty are our day-to-day realities. This is why we need Emmanuel – God with us.
Our desperate need for redemption and salvation began in the beginning, at the Fall (Genesis 2-3), when everything completely unraveled in an instant, tearing away true life in God alone from the souls of Adam and Eve (thereby all of us).
Yet, in that moment, God answered, promising a Messiah, a Savior who would soon come to reorder the world, and to create everything anew.
Isaiah 61:1-7 English Standard Version
The Year of the Lord’s Favor
61 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;[a]
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;[b]
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
3 to grant to those who mourn in Zion—
to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes,
the oil of gladness instead of mourning,
the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified.[c]
4 They shall build up the ancient ruins;
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities,
the devastations of many generations.
5 Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks;
foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers;
6 but you shall be called the priests of the Lord;
they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God;
you shall eat the wealth of the nations,
and in their glory you shall boast.
7 Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.
Jesus’ birth answers the groans of all creation, ours included (Romans 8:19-23).
He saw all the pain, and grief and suffering resulting from the brokenness of sin, and came to start the process of restoration.
That which is broken will be restored, the wounded healed.
The problem of sin, brokenness, suffering, and injustice solved once and for all.
Results of His coming leaves believers in Him in the oft-time uncomfortable already-not-yet, where we have the final promises of restoration but do not yet see it playing out completely in our lives, hearts, and circumstances.
So, in the difficulties of each season, we cling to God’s gift of our Savior who came to save us bringing His always faithful promises to bring us life anew.
Galatians 4:4-7 English Standard Version
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Our souls yearn for the glorious destiny He is planning for us, while we wait.
Look directly at your pain and suffering (no matter how “trivial” it seems).
Psalm 139:23-24 Amplified Bible
23
Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart;
Test me and know my anxious thoughts;
24
And see if there is any wicked or hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.
To bask in the comfort of Jesus anytime of the year, Pray! Allow yourself to acknowledge the brokenness of the world and your own soul. Don’t gloss over the pain, throwing tinsel and glitter till it shines. Be honest with yourself.
Call hurt what it is – name it. Examine the hurt. Allow (or force) yourself to stop (Psalm 46:10) long enough to acknowledge what you are feeling and why.
For many, our natural tendency is to gloss over our suffering and sin.
Perhaps, a coat of royal icing, glitter will distract us from the pain underneath.
If we occupy ourselves with Hallmark movies and caroling, maybe we won’t feel the ache so deep, so heavy in our hearts.
Maybe we can enjoy the festivities without having to look beneath the surface.
Yet, we can only walk in truth when we acknowledge our pain, suffering, hurt, and brokenness.
Denial only serves, keeps us, separated from God, and thereby, from the truth of the Gospel.
“In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen”
Praying ….
Psalm 24 Amplified Bible
The King of Glory Entering Zion.
[a]A Psalm of David.
24 The earth [b]is the Lord’s, and the fullness of it,
The world, and those who dwell in it.
2
For He has founded it upon the seas
And established it upon the streams and the rivers.
3
Who may ascend onto the [c]mountain of the Lord?
And who may stand in His holy place?
4
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to what is false,
Nor has sworn [oaths] deceitfully.
5
He shall receive a blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
6
This is the generation (description) of those who diligently seek Him and require Him as their greatest need,
Who seek Your face, even [as did] Jacob. Selah.
7
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And be lifted up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
8
Who is the King of glory?
The Lord strong and mighty,
The Lord mighty in battle.
9
Lift up your heads, O gates,
And lift them up, ancient doors,
That the King of glory may come in.
10
Who is [He then] this King of glory?
The Lord of hosts,
He is the King of glory [who rules over all creation with His heavenly armies]. Selah.
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.
Loving God, Living God, Loving Hope, Living Hope, Loving Living Life His Way! "Many things are possible for the person who has hope. Even more is possible for the person who has faith. And still more is possible for the person who knows how to love. But everything is possible for the person who practices all three virtues." - Brother Lawrence (1605-1691), Practicing the Presence of God (1692). 