This has been a year of learning more about what it means to live under the cross. We have not suffered death or other great loss. We have not been imprisoned or beaten. Perhaps we suffer a more ‘gentle’ form of suffering than others, we do not get to chose our crosses, we are only to take them up and follow.
Suffering isn’t a pleasant thought during Christmas, it’s the most wonderful time of the year after all. But as I listen again and again to the “Christmas Story” I see suffering wrapped all around it.
I read of Mary’s rejection by Joseph and shame as an unwed pregnant girl. I can’t help but wonder how she was treated during her pregnancy and perhaps ever after. Then there was a journey to undergo being “great with child” and no room in the inn once she and Joseph arrived. Mary gave birth to God’s Son in filth and noise and later they fled for their lives to Egypt. Joseph and Mary endured the nightmare of losing track of a child in a large crowded city searching for days to find Him. Then finally she watched as her son was betrayed, beaten, mocked and murdered.
And for all this Mary was still called “Blessed.” I don’t know if I would have felt very blessed. Under the cover of all this suffering God’s plan, His great gift to man was still glorious. To our eyes this glorious plan just looks cruel and wrong. Our flesh and this World are scandalized by such suffering. How could any of this be good?
The Christmas Season goes on for 12 days highlighting more blood and death with Stephen’s slaying, the slaughter of The Innocents and Jesus’ circumcision.
And in all this God says “A light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”
We expect that our Christmas be merry and bright, not full of load after load of barfy sheets, sinus infections and miserable crying babies. What if we have to shuffle through the day sick, unable to rest, still having to make meals and wash dishes?
What if our Christmas is less than ideal or if we bury a loved one 2 days before the 25th. How do we still sing Joy to the World?
Only through faith, because we know that the Lord has come. Come to save us all from Satan’s power when we were gone astray. Our service has been completed, our sin has been paid for, we have received from the Lord’s hand double for all our sins.
And in that do we find tidings of Comfort and Joy.
