When Christmas falls in painful places, “merry and bright” can seem elusive, perhaps even a bit offensive. Lights are everywhere, and yet they are powerless to expel the dark clouds casting a shadow over the season. Sleepless nights come not from anticipation of the holiday, but from uncertainty about tomorrow. And sometimes tomorrow becomes a date etched in stone that marks a life departed. Grief eclipses “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” replacing celebration with sadness, as if night has fallen and the light has faded from our world.
Surely we would suffocate beneath our sorrow if not for the hope of a coming Savior. The people of Israel watched and waited for hundreds of years for the promised Messiah to invade their darkness. And when He did, the heavenly host could not contain their jubilation, for “love’s pure light” had finally come; it was the “dawn of redeeming grace.”
But now, we find ourselves in another season of waiting; the world has, once again, grown increasingly dark and every day seems to bring with it another piece of bad news. For many, the holiday has lost its luster, colored by despair instead of delight. For believers, however, we do not grieve as those with no hope, for the same Jesus who invaded our world on the first Christmas, will soon return to “make all things new.” It is the hope of Christ’s return that allows us to experience joy in the midst of our suffering—a joy that does not erase our pain in this life, but gives us hope for the next.
“That Light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.” John 1:5