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I want to start by saying that I know I’ve already written about difficult times (specifically, infertility and miscarriage) during Christmas. But as I sit here and write, looking up to see our fridge overflowing with pictures of babies on Christmas postcards and simultaneously thinking of a friend who just found out at 33 weeks her baby will not survive, I can’t help but think that going through difficult times at Christmas deserves another post. Sometimes it’s hard to rejoice during the holidays.
And if you read my other post, you probably noticed — in what I think has become typical of my writing — that it centered on a challenge: Where are you storing up treasures for yourself…on earth or in heaven?
I tend to have a habit of reading the Bible as a guide to tell me how I can be a better, more faithful person.
How often I forget that the Bible is first and foremost a book about God and what He does for us; not about what we can do for Him.
So while there’s nothing wrong with being challenged by the words of the Bible and even the Christmas story itself (I still firmly believe the Bible should challenge us), a challenge is not what God offers to those of us suffering at Christmastime. That’s not why Jesus came.
So if you’re going through infertility or miscarriage; if you’ve just lost a loved one; if Christmas just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year, this post is for you.
Jesus didn’t come at Christmastime to challenge us; He came to save us.
When Jesus came at Christmastime, everything changed. He fulfilled God’s promise of a coming Savior, offering us what we could never deserve: forgiveness and the hope of eternal life. And He became fully man, able to relate to us in every way — including in suffering.
At Christmastime, in the midst of hardship — when we long for the comfort of relationships and the hope of an end to suffering — Jesus came to earth and offers us both.
A relationship
God sent his son Immanuel to be with us. When we’re suffering, we long for people to be with us and to be able to relate to us.
“For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.”
Hebrews 2:17
It’s interesting that Jesus came as a baby, isn’t it? Because he came as a baby, he experienced the full range of human emotions and difficulties. Jesus wept with Lazarus’ sister in John 11. He was tempted in the desert in Matthew 4. He experienced exhaustion and betrayal; ridicule and scorn. He had a hometown, one that people said in disbelief, “Can anything good come from there?” (John 1:46)
When Jesus came as a baby at Christmastime, He became just like you and me.
Therefore, “We do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15)
Jesus understands our suffering, not because he can imagine it, but because he lived it. In our suffering, Jesus doesn’t just pity us and give us a shoulder to cry on; He weeps with us.
Hope
“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
John 3:17
Again, I have to remind myself: The Bible is a book about God. And despite the way that Jesus’ sermons and parables challenge and convict me, God didn’t send Jesus to condemn me and make me aware of my shortcomings. He sent Jesus to save me.
What we truly long for at Christmastime– more than anything — is an end to pain. An end to suffering. In the midst of broken relationships and suffering and unfulfilled dreams, we want to be able to place our hope in something — or someone — who we can be certain will never let us down or disappoint us. Jesus — in His perfect life and innocent death — came to give us that hope.
Jesus came at Christmastime to reveal God’s plan to save humanity. He came to reveal that your current suffering is not the end of your story. And it is nothing compared to your future glory. (Romans 8:18)
The best is yet to come.
So what now?
(See what I mean? Now that we’ve established what God has done, what do we do?)
Lamentations
The book of Lamentations begins with two and a half chapters of exactly what the title suggests: Lament. The author cries out to God about the injustices of the world:
–“Is any suffering like my suffering that was inflicted on me, that the Lord brought on me in the day of his fierce anger?” (1:12)
–“My groans are many and my heart is faint.” (1:22)
–“My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed.” (2:11)
–“He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.” (3:5)
And so we do the same.
While we wait for Jesus Christ to come again, we weep, we mourn, we cry out to God. We question Him; we might even blame Him. And then:
“Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.”
Lamentations 3:22
After two and a half chapters of lament, the author of Lamentations recalls the Lord’s great love. And therefore, he has hope.
Us too.
We suffer and weep and cry out to God…for longer, perhaps, than just two and a half chapters.
And yet: Just like in Lamentations, we recall the Lord’s great love. We recall that He sent his son Jesus Christ at Christmastime, to be with us and to save us.
And for that reason, we have hope.
Beautiful post, this came to me at the perfect time. Thank you so much for sharing❤️
Thank you 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it!