So I have a confession to make…
This will be my forty-seventh Christmas! With the way this year has gone and with Christmas fast approaching, I began reminiscing about all the Christmases of my past.
As I thought back over my years, it seems as though I have had Christmases that included both extreme difficulties and extreme blessings.
There was a year as a child that I was so ill, my doctor called my mother on Christmas Eve to inform her that the tests showed that I was not going to die. There was the Christmas, that through some creative bartering, I was given a horse! I have experienced Christmases of being showered with gifts and ones with just a couple presents. There have been years celebrating while surrounded by family and friends and a couple by myself. There has however, been one constant through all the Christmases of my life and that still holds true this year.
That constant is Jesus. Even during the darkest Christmases, the fact of Jesus coming to earth as Emmanuel, God With Us, has been a beacon of comfort and hope. When I was a young teenager I began a tradition that on midnight Christmas Eve I read the Christmas story from the Bible. (This is in Luke 2:1-20) I have found peace as I have read of the miracle of a God Who loves us so much that He sent His son to earth to save us. This peace has transcended whatever circumstances I have found myself in that particular Christmas.
I believe that this will still be the case this year. I have hope that even this Christmas with all of the turmoil and uncertainty that so many people find themselves in, that the truth and light of this season will still shine brightly. I pray that we can focus on the love that came to us in the form of a baby who grew into God With Us and then freely died and rose again to give us the gift of salvation–the best Christmas present ever, one that will never fail.
“For by such grace you have been saved through faith. This does not come from you; it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:8
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