Hello, friends!
I wrote this two years ago and decided to reshare it because 1.) it was Christmas program weekend (!!!) and that absorbed my thoughts and enthusiasm more than blog posts did, and 2.) it says so much of what’s on my heart again this year. Why try to be original when something old will do? 🙂
Regardless of whether your joy is full or if it’s something you’re looking hard for this year, this post is for you. ❤
Every year we talk about how the Christmas season is so hard for many people.
It’s always acknowledged, but all the acknowledgements in the world won’t change the fact that many of us will be crying inside at times this Christmas, even as we’re surrounded by family and friends who love us more than we know.
But don’t you know that this ache, this emptiness, this longing loneliness is the very reason Christmas even exists?
This world is broken. People fail. Hearts shatter. People hurt. People die.
So God wrapped himself in trembling flesh to heal that brokenness for eternity.
God with us.
Not God peering down on us from the heights of His holiness. Not God ruling over us. Not God commanding us from a distant galaxy.
No.
God with us.
God wailing with hunger and cold.
God being carried from His home country to safety.
God playing in the very dirt His fingers once molded to form the first of his people.
God trying to escape the exhausting press of a crowd.
God sleeping in a boat in the middle of a churning sea.
God weeping.
God making a meal for his best friends.
God sweating our blood, pleading with His Father for an easier path.
God dying.
God hurling away our sin and drawing us near to Himself.
God with us.
In our pain, in our sorrow, in our heartbreak, in our loneliness, in our brokenness, in our despair…
God with us.
God promising that the brokenness of this world is not the end. The end of the brokenness will come and seep into eternity…
Us with God.
Laurel Luehmann 