Christmas Day 2022
My phone dinged at 6:45am this morning with the first Merry Christmas greeting with others to follow. I lay here in bed scrolling through Facebook and watching the world wake up to Christmas under the tree. So many with little children celebrating with wide grins across their faces. So many with beautifully lit trees celebrating with people they love. As the song says “it’s the most wonderful time of the year!”
I am thankful for all the happy memories being made by my family this year. While there is always some nostalgia for the past and those who are no longer with us, I cling to the hope that Christmas brought to the world- a hope for mankind and the future. While there will be some disappointed in what they were able to give others for Christmas and perhaps even disappointment in what they received, it is all a temporal celebration of things to come.
1 Peter 1:3–4 states “He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” Oh what a grand inheritance that will be! This morning I am thankful for a God who knows his plans for me. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”
— Jeremiah 29:11. This is what is reflected in eyes of the baby in the manger for me. The hope for a weary world! A hope for a materialistic society. A hope that far surpasses the grief that some are feeling today, the gravy train pleasure that some are experiencing today, or the quiet reflection some are doing today. A hope that gives me a reason for existing.
Jesus meets us where we are, no matter how we are when we find him. He sits with us in our grief, he rejoices with our rejoicings, and he guides us in our reflecting. His kingdom is not of this world. He was and is to come. “. . . and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.” Revelation 1:5–6
