This is What Christmas is All About

We tend to think Christmas is about merry making.

But life is hard, isn’t it?? I can’t think of anyone who isn’t struggling through something.

I have a friend attempting to repair her marriage after betrayal.

I have a friend with aging parents and a father in and out of the hospital.

I have a friend struggling to parent her young adult children, trying to find the balance between helping and letting go while watching them flounder through some very hard circumstances.

I have a friend who lost a coworker to suicide.

I have a friend with a mother who stopped talking to her, and she’s reeling over abandonment in the middle of her own adult life.

We’re ALL struggling.

Then Christmas sweeps in with its twinkly lights and cozy commercials and comfort foods, and we don’t feel much like making merry. We just feel…sad.

Life doesn’t look the way it is ‘supposed to’ look. And everywhere we turn, commercials play Christmas music with beautiful images of tender family moments and all those twinkly lights, and we think, “My life isn’t anything like that.” And it hurts.

But…

Isn’t THAT what Christmas is about??

I saw something the other day about how ‘the first Christmas was simple.’ But was it? I bet Mary didn’t think so.

Traveling on a donkey at full term. All those people milling about and no place to stay. A baby born in a barn to this young family struggling in the middle of a desperately broken world. I can’t imagine any of it was warm and cozy. And certainly not simple.

I bet it smelled. I bet Mary screamed. I bet baby Jesus cried as she struggled to nurse him. I bet there was blood and dirt and tears and donkey poop. And I bet she wondered what in the world she was doing there. Why her???

The Christmas Story isn’t about twinkly lights or making merry. And though the promises are everywhere, it’s not about making it ‘simple’ either. Not really.

Christmas is about HOPE.

Grace and Truth arrived on Christmas to say, “I know it’s hard. I know you are struggling. I know you feel like you have nowhere else to turn. And you didn’t think life would look anything like this. But I’m here now. I’m here forever. I’m here for YOU. Come…follow me.”

It's true, Christmas won’t ‘fix’ everything. It won’t magically transform your life into one of those warm, cozy Folgers commercials. It won’t make everything easier or anywhere close to what you thought it might be. He told us this life is hard.

But He promises we’ll never struggle alone.

Yes, Christmas is all about Hope.