Hope for the Hopeless

Merry Christmas! It is the morning after Christmas here in our part of the world but I believe many are still celebrating the merry day. Christmas is obviously a joyous occasion and it is the time of rejoicing and sharing hope and love with people. But I also do not take away the fact that this is not the case for many parts of the world right now especially in war torn areas where fear and dread are palpable and death is imminent. For those brothers and sisters out there, it is probably not a merry Christmas and my heart goes out to them. Despite this sad truth, however, I believe that the very concept behind this occasion is the hope that they need and quite frankly, everyone else does too.

I guess everybody knows the story of where this all began. It is a story of hope, joy, and love. But on the flip side, it is also a very painful story and I know many people can relate. Think about it, the God of the universe came into his own and he had nowhere to sleep in, he was basically akin to a homeless person. Nativity scenes depict this part of the story by showing some wise men bowing down before a child in a manger bringing gifts. All the while, Herod, threatened of being overthrown by the so-called Messiah, gave out an edict to kill all male Israelite babies below two years of age, basically the very first martyrs for the cause of Christ.

Just from this portion of the story, we see how much this Person, for whom this whole occasion is centered on, from the very moment He came to this world already had it hard in life but he was undeterred. He had no bed to sleep on and he already received death threats. Of course, the wise men and some shepherds acknowledged who He was and that gave them hope. But that did not alleviate the pain that the Messiah would have to endure to fulfill His mission on earth. That was not the end of it though, when He grew up and began His ministry, He was intensely scrutinized and attacked because His own people took offense at Him. He would eventually be rejected, betrayed, mocked, scorned, beaten, torn, and ultimately, killed without just reason. All this He did because He loved them.

This is the hope that we have. The death of this one Person gave way for us all to have life. Many people are facing grave threats against their life right now because of their faith in this one Person and it will go on every single day, no matter what the occasion. Many people are hurting because they have lost everything or maybe because they have broken families or other problems, but He knows what we go through, He went through the same.

I guess what I am trying to say here is that the joy that this season brings comes not from the temporal things that we associate with it although those things are fine, nothing wrong with giving gifts or going to parties or eating as much as you like, just take it easy though. Our joy is built upon the fact that we can finally be reconciled to our Creator. We find joy because we know that our pain is not meaningless and we would gladly endure whatever for the sake of the One who gave His life for all so that all may have life.