The Sadness of Christmas

My heart is heavy today.

Usually, this is a season when I love to celebrate, focusing on the "good news of great joy" part of Christmas.  Angels lighting up the sky.  Peace on earth.

But for 2012, this is a tough season.  We are grieving the loss of family.  The national news reminds us of the darkness that presses in.  A few days ago, I got an email from a friend who has been through alot in the past few years... and she wrote to tell us that her husband just lost his job of 20+ years.  And then yesterday, I received a call from another friend.  His wife had just unexpectedly died, leaving their 2 small children motherless.

And so today I ask... where is the Christmas in all of this?

And then I realize... this is what Christmas is really for.  Not the lights or the candles or the presents.  But the God-in-the-flesh babe being born in the midst of animal feed and poop.  A God-in-the-flesh babe who would be hunted by a crazy governor (Herod) within a few years.  (The babe and his family would escape.  But their friends and neighbor's babies would be slaughtered.)  A God-in-the-flesh babe who was born with a mission in order to rescue the world. 

The "good news of great joy" is not a simplistic answer to what ails the world.  It's not a magic wand or a genie in a bottle.  It's not a "fa-la-la-la-la" kind of experience.

It's not simplistic... but it is simple.  God-in-the-flesh, born to die, to save you and me.

This is the harsh, sad, raw, grieving side of Christmas.

It is also the hope-filled side of Christmas.  Because somehow, it is out of the saddest part of the story, that the hope comes.  "I bring you good news of great joy" isn't about the miracle of a baby being born (as some of our tv shows would have you believe).  It's about God loving the world so much that He gave His one and only Son to us.  And that Son came on a willing mission of sacrifice.  And in that there is hope.

Somehow, Jesus chose not just to come to the sadness of this world, but to enter it fully.  He wasn't born in a castle to royalty.  He was born into the poorest of circumstances.

Somehow, the fact that God-in-the-flesh chose not just to reach out to this sad world from a castle-on-the-hill, but He chose to enter and embrace the sadness of the world, becoming part of it... somehow that gives me courage and hope.  

My heart will continue to be heavy for our world.  But the fact that there is a necessary sadness in Christmas actually helps.  I know that Jesus understands our pain and suffering.  And I know that He can redeem it.