When Hurt Clouds Your Christmas Joy

God has allowed me to see much suffering this Christmas season. Broken marriages. Kids caught in the crossfire. Addiction. Abuse. Loss. Young children who watch their terminally ill mommy fight to spend one more Christmas morning with them.

Sadness at Christmastime creates a tension that assaults our senses. Merry sounds of music, images of smiling families, tastes of homemade cookies, and smells of cinnamon fill the atmosphere, but the fog of our hurt lays heavy, making it hard to fully enjoy the season.

Last night, my three kids and I snuggled close on the couch for the day’s advent reading. The scripture we read in Isaiah prophesied about the One, the Christ-child, whose birth we will celebrate in just over a week from now. It gave us a different image of this baby we had just nestled into the manger of our nativity set.

“There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected – a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. He was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all (Isaiah 53: 2-6).”

Does this scripture assault your cinnamon-sprinkled, merry music-filled senses? It does mine! But here is the beauty in the tension…

Because Jesus came and suffered, we have a Savior who is acquainted with our sorrow and offers us great hope.

Think about this…

Jesus, just nine months before, sat enthroned beside God the Father and reigned from heaven with all authority, power and glory. Then, because of his perfect love for us, took off his royal crown and became a helpless human baby. Jesus grew up feeling the loneliness of rejection, the sting of hatred, the void of loss, and the agony of suffering.

He left heaven and brought rescue to you.

He went to the cross and brought life to you.

He overcame the grave and brought hope to you.

Right now, in this very moment, he is pursuing you so he can carry you. Dear friend, you were never meant to bear the burden alone. I urge you to make your way through the fog and come to the manger. There you will find a Savior who understands what you’re going through and who loves you so much that he gave up everything to become your everything. Let the angel who declared Christ’s birth two thousand years ago declare it fresh to your heart today,

“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2: 10-11).  

Merry Christmas!

Anna Frye is a speaker, author, television host and founder of the Chosen and Crowned tribe. She invites moms and wives to celebrate imperfect progress fueled by the grace of a perfect God. She helps women bravely talk about the messy places of life, instead of hiding shamefully under them. She believes that lasting beauty comes when women courageously surrender their ashes to God and allow him to do something mind-blowingly amazing with them. If this resonates with you, then you belong with the Chosen and Crowned tribe. Connect at www.ChosenAndCrowned.com/blog