Peace, Love, and Joy

Hi friends.

I’ve taken a hiatus from this blog for a little bit, partly for personal reasons (nothing serious) and then to work on other writing projects. That said, I’m fully hoping to get back into it next year, God-willing.

I felt called, as Advent begins, to make a special post about Christmas. Since Advent is about preparing our hearts for Christmas, I wanted to create a post that would act as a compass needle, if you will; I want to point us in the direction of the true meaning of Christmas.

This comes from my experience of living away from my family of origin and what Christmas is really about. Because people say it’s about family, but it’s not. Not in the way we generally think it is, anyway.

When we talk about peace, love, and joy at Christmas, we do not speak of family gatherings. Although it would be nice to set aside differences and share in love and glad tidings, this is not what we are gathering to celebrate.

As Christians, we have the greatest gift in our Lord’s death and resurrection. The truth is, on Christmas, we see the baby in the manger, but we know that that baby is the same Christ crucified for our sins, and the same Christ who defeated death by His resurrection. We celebrate a God who came to us when we were stubborn and unfaithful. He walked with us, fully God and yet fully man, so He knows our experience, who said “come unto me, all who are weary and heavily burdened”, who spread His arms wide to show us how much He loved us, who waits for us and longs for us, and sees us, lovely and beloved.

The great hope that we have, that Jesus has prepared a room in His Father’s house for us that is our source of peace and joy. The peace of Christ and the joy of our salvation are what we celebrate: at Christmas, every Sunday, and indeed, each day we have breath in us. I always loved the poem It Is Well With My Soul by Horatio Spafford. He wrote it after he was financially ruined by the Great Chicago Fire followed quickly by a recession and then death of his children at sea. It encapsulates so well the Christian peace and joy. It opens with these powerful words:

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll—
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
“It is well, it is well with my soul.”

But we would have none of that had He not been made incarnate, for His great love of us. That is what is at the heart of our peace, our source of joy, and indeed, is Love itself.

So if your family is apart, or dysfunctional, or separated by the veil of death, remember, Christmas is not about our biological family, but about the family God has welcomed us into, as His sons and daughters.

If you receive gifts that are not useful or not to your liking, remember, Christmas is not about those gifts, but about the free gift of salvation that we have all been offered through God’s great love and mercy.

The trope that Christmas can be ruined is a lie from the devil, because as Jesus said, “it is finished”. Christmas is a gift to us: a moment enshrined in Eternity. The baby in the hay is the beaten and bloodied man on the cross, and the same baby in the hay is the glorious risen Christ Jesus.

Let us prepare our hearts this Advent to welcome our Saviour, humbling them as lowly stables to receive Him who humbled Himself to come to us as a baby in the hay, grateful for the gift of our sonship and our salvation in Christ.