I pray this Christmas you will discover the peace and joy of the One who entered our world to reconcile us to our Creator. After our Saturday night service, which we concluded with singing “Joy to the World,” a man came out and shook my hand and asked, “How can someone have joy during Christmas when there’s cancer, a son estranged from his father, and a life that seems all alone?”
Christmas isn’t a time where everyone experiences joy. Oftentimes the opposite is true. As Christians, we don’t hold “joy” over other people’s heads as something we proudly gain while others continue to struggle. But we do offer joy with humility, sincerity and grace.
It wasn’t to a group of middle-class, comfort-filled, warm-and-well-fed individuals who first received the angelic proclamation: “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). It was to a group of lowly shepherds who lived in an oppressed society during turbulent days.
This good news is “for all the people”–happy, sad, rich, poor, those going through good times and those going through rough times. Wherever you may be this Christmas season, I pray you receive joy–that which goes beyond circumstance and “happenstance” which only leads to happiness. I pray you receive a joy that is inexpressible and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8). How can we receive this? By believing in Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, for in doing so, we are receiving “the end result of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls” (1 Peter 1:9).
Merry Christmas!
