Wherever you are today, whether Christmas is a joyous time or a struggle for you, whether you find yourself filled with happiness and celebration or perhaps loneliness or emptiness or maybe even both, my sincere prayer is that the Divine Hope of Christ would fill you afresh.
The greatest miracle of Christmas is not just that God came to be near us, but that He came to be one of us – with us, in our reality. Our hope is a God Who is with us in our ordinary or our pain or our loneliness, not far off or detached from our struggles or our questions or our brokenness. He was born as a citizen of a broken nation, into a regular family, conceived by a young un-wed girl, birthed and laid in a manger, welcomed first by shepherds (the low ranking society), had to run and hide as a refugee in Africa, grew up to hold an ordinary job in a common town…He came to be a God Who is WITH US… One Who understands us, Who relates to us, Who loves us…One Who laid aside His Deity to be clothed in flesh… and He chose to make His home here so that through His sinless life and His redemptive death, we could have a home in heaven. He chose to live among us as one of us… so He understands tough days, hard seasons, frustrating circumstances, obscurity, exhaustion, weariness, loneliness, hurt, lack, sorrow, grief, complicated emotions, family dynamics, desire, longing… He understands you. He understands me.
So wherever you find yourself this Christmas, know that there is hope for you right where you are, for there is a God Who fully understands. There is a God Who is present, His Name is Emmanuel and He is WITH US still.
Prayer: Jesus, You know what it feels like to be where I am right now. Fill me with hope again today as I focus on You – the God Who sees and Who knows. My hope is in You, Emmanuel.
Rebekah Dawn 