Seeking Christ at Christmas

     I cannot believe it is already time for Christmas! This is true… 1) Probably because it is summer here and so very hot 2) I don’t have a TV here to show me through all the commercials what I need to buy this year 3) there is no Black Friday shopping day or any stores with sales for that matter 4) and Wal-Mart does not exist to sell decorations, lights, trees, etc. It is actually a very weird, uncomfortable feeling as I have never been away from home for Christmas before. To be truly honest, it has given me this feeling of loneliness and isolation. Growing up in America where every holiday has candy, decorating materials, and all you could ever need and more to celebrate at least a month before the actual holiday, I find myself in the most unusual, but somehow enlightening situation. I realize that in America there are many people who have started to say Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas, and there needs to be a constant reminder that Jesus is the reason for the season when we start to buy too much or are unsatisfied with what we have bought or been given, but even with these issues everyone still knows it is Christmas. Unlike ever before in my life, I have had to genuinely seek Christ at Christmas. I know that sounds crazy, but it is so true.

In my seeking however, like my entire life, Christ was just waiting to be found. Just as Jeremiah in chapter 29 says, ^“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” I just had to call upon the Lord…which always makes me think about all the times I don’t or haven’t! I usually go straight to the Gospels to read about the coming and birth of Jesus, but I somehow got stuck in the book of Romans…the Lord loves to instruct his children. There are so many verses that spoke so much life even though I had read them a hundred times before. I guess I will start with Romans 8:1-4, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Seriously, just read it one more time. God sent his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin that we might not have to walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. I don’t know about you, but I find so much hope in this verse and therefore in Christ. But I think that is how Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the Wise men, etc. must have felt as well. A savior was to be born to set his people free from the strongholds of not only the world and unjust rulers they thought, but of sin and flesh. Then again Paul writes in Romans 5:17, “For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!” Christ’s birth meant and still means everything. Without his life we wouldn’t have our life that is full of grace, freedom, and righteousness instead of condemnation, bondage, and fear. We have so much to rejoice in for “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Romans 5:2) To stand in God’s grace only through the man of Jesus brings great peace, and therefore hope. I have always loved the hymn Before the Throne of God Above, but still every time I hear or read it I am overwhelmed with gratitude for the love of God in sending his son to the earth for our sin. Because of Christ we are accepted before the throne of God as pure and forgiven children of God whose names are graven on his hands that Satan will never be able to erase.

Before the throne of God above
I have a strong and perfect plea.
A great high Priest whose Name is Love
Who ever lives and pleads for me.
My name is graven on His hands,
My name is written on His heart.
I know that while in heaven He stands
No tongue can bid me thence depart.

When Satan tempts me to despair
And tells me of the guilt within,
Upward I look and see Him there
Who made an end of all my sin.
Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.

I hope your Christmas is filled with joy, celebration, and giving, just as God gave his son for each of us! I know things are never perfect in our lives, life in general is never easy or fair for that matter, and Christmas can be an especially hard time for some, but just knowing that we have a loving God on our side that sent his son for our pardon and freedom is the most comforting and revolutionary fact we can know and believe. I love you all and miss you heaps! Merry Christmas!!! Katie J