Our Christmas Hope
There’s a Nativity scene on the table, five trains in the house, stockings are hung, and lights gleam from the tree, bathing ornaments of various themes in light. It’s Christmas Day, as I set by the tree, it’s a peaceful Christmas morning.
The Message of Christmas, that is the birth of The Savior, has endured everything from the dark ages to two world wars. Regardless of circumstance, opinion, or threat, Hope overcame fear, it’s no stranger to it.
The story of Christmas didn’t start in a manger, it goes back so much farther. Before God made the worlds, He knew if man chose to sin, what He would have to do. In the garden, Adam and Eve realizing what their mistake had cost them, we’re despairing of hope. God had to do what He told them He would do, but He also told them something else.
There would be a child who would return hope to the world. A hope of not being bound by, or to their mistakes. A hope that Isaiah whispered would grow out of a dry ground.
When Jesus was born, David was not on a throne, nor was David’s descendants. David’s body was buried, and many believed the hope of Israel was as well. After all, the Roman eagle had compassed the known world. What hope did Israel see for their future? An yet today, a Jewish flag soars over David’s homeland, and Augustus’ body lies in a tomb.
If Israel felt hopeless, how much more Gentiles, descendants of everyone from Esau to the Philistines. None of us were part of Abraham’s family tree, there were no lights in our history. Yet hope declared “Come unto me all you that labor, and are heavy laden!”
Hope walked from the streets of Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Capernaum, to the Gentile streets of Samaria and Sidon. Jesus reached out to the Samaritans, and the Syrophoenician. Hope shouted that Jesus was born to save the world, Jew and Gentile.
Hope explained that His death on the cross would open the door of Hope to all the world, for He was The Door, The Way, The Truth, and The Life. He had placed a way of escape where none existed before. Three days after sacrificing His life for ours, He walked out of a borrowed tomb, and He left a God shaped hole in the fabric of fear.
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Because it’s more than statues on a table, or lights on a tree. It’s more than a small train just going around in circles. It’s the fact that no matter how dark the day, or sorrowful the night, His Light cuts through it!
Christmas holds the fact that, because He was born, died, and rose, He will return, silencing fear once and for all. Until then, He will calm our fears, reassure us that His Peace can endure tribulation, famine, war, and opinions.
Jesus wrapped Christmas in something much stronger than either swaddling or grave clothes, He wrapped it in a promise. A promise that peace on earth, and goodwill to men is more than a song, but a reality. A promise that, because He lives, we will live also, and that is what Christmas means to me! It’s why I celebrate Christmas everyday!