Christmas
As I write this, I am tired.
As I think through what I want to say, I am empty.
As I think on the year that is finishing, I am exhausted.
As I think of the year to come, I am scared.
I imagine it may be how Mary felt as she travelled to Bethlehem.
I imagine how the nation of Israel must have felt as they lived with and housed foreign soldiers in their cities.
But the promise of Christmas isn’t only for when we are well-rested. The promise of the King isn’t for when we feel good.
The promise of the Messiah is for when we are empty. For when we feel like we can’t go any further. For when we feel like the world is too much.
“Today in the city of David, a Savior is born for you.”
Today, a rescuer, a deliverer, a guardian, a liberator is born for us.
That’s what Christmas is about. That’s what the birth of Christ means:
There is a Deliverer born to bring us out of our sins. Born to show us a way out from our wrongdoings. Born to break us free from the mistakes we’ve made.
Born to free us from our racism, our sexism, our prejudice, our violence, our pride, our disdain for the poor and oppressed.
Christ came to deliver us from our sins as individuals, from the wrongdoings that I have committed, yes. But He was also born to deliver our world from our wrongdoings.
“He will save his people from their sins.”
He will save the nation of Israel from their sins, just as He will save the people He created from their sins.
This Christmas, as we finish off an exhausting, sometimes terrifying year that has just taken and taken from us, let’s remember that the wrongdoing around us doesn’t have to exist forever.
Let’s remember that the injustice around us doesn’t have to be permanent.
Christ came to deliver us from it all. Christ came to save us from oppression.
This Christmas, let’s take hope in the promise of the Savior.
Let’s take hope in the deliverance of the Deliverer.
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