WESTLAND – I have always loved Christmas! It’s always been a magical time full of twinkly lights, family traditions, familiar decorations, festive gatherings and the celebration of a humble couple and their brand new baby.
Well this year for us is a bit different. We too are just a humble couple expecting our brand new baby boy. I’m 8 months pregnant and it makes this Christmas season seem real on a whole different level. We too are waiting for our first baby boy to be born.
This Christmas season for us is full of waiting. Not just waiting for this baby, but waiting for dreams to be fulfilled, questions to be answered and for decisions to be made in regards to our precious foster child we’ve had for a couple of years. As we get closer to the addition of one son, we anxiously await God’s plan for the other. We struggle to trust a Holy God amidst a flawed human system. We are both filled with awe and excitement as well as fear, sadness, and uncertainty. We are both thankful for the fulfilled promise of one child and mourning what might never be.
We are waiting. We are mourning. We are praising God for what He has done, yet asking him earnestly for Him to intervene.
I imagine Mary might have felt the same. Mary was specially chosen to carry the Savior of the world. She had every reason to be thankful and blessed. But the circumstances surrounding the conception of her baby made her an outcast. Mary was betrothed to a good man named Joseph, and had to tell him she was pregnant.
During this time, Joseph had the right to stone her to death for this. Yet he married her, taking on the shame and responsibility of raising a child that was not his own. While Mary sings, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior”, she also might have been mourning how everyone else perceived this holy miracle. The gossip surrounding his conception followed her and her family.
She was grateful. She was scared or alone. She praised God for this miracle but might have doubted why he had to bring it like this.
Christmas also reminds us of this dissonance. The joy mixed with the grief. The suffering and the glory. The joy of the long awaited, promised, perfect Savior to bring us back into relationship with God. The end of animal sacrifices, and not being able to approach the throne. The joy of the heavenly coming down to us. The beauty of a fragile baby invading the world with humility, and service to love us, a wicked and deceptive people. A God who said, “Come to me”. The ultimate healer coming down to rescue us.
Yet we don’t need to look far to see that the devil still prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. The evil we see all around us reminds us, the world is not yet fully redeemed. For Christ will come a second time, restoring once and for all. Yet we are waiting.
Romans 8:22-23 puts this perfectly:
“For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.”
We groan for the world to be set right. We ache for the healing, restoration, and peace that comes from knowing that Christ is, has come and will come. Because of Christmas, because of what Christ came to do we can have hope that when He invades our world the next time he will do it in victory. He has already won!
So Lord, find us faithful. Find us to be a people who trust You in the joy as well as the grief. Remind us that while we are waiting You are still good, you are close and you see us. Thank you, that in Colossians 2, Jesus, you, “...disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; [and] triumphed over them.”
Christ has already defeated Satan. It is already done! So this Christmas season we rejoice in the victory of Christ amidst the brokenness of the world. We remember when we look at the manger scene that while Christ came in humility, he also came in power. That our promise of victory is only through the victory of Christ over death and the rulers and authorities. We enjoy the twinkly lights, the family traditions, the magic of it all because we know our hope is in much more.
Merry Christmas!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Claire lives in Westland, MI with Dan, the love of her life, her beloved foster son, her snuggly pup, Daisy and baby to be! She is imperfectly following her Savior and delights in being involved in the lives of others. She is excited to celebrate this Christmas, but even more the arrival of her sweet miracle baby!