Christmas proves God's word is reliable
I'll admit it. I'm not a BIG fan of Christmas. (And that might be putting it mildly.)
The "Christmas season" has not been kind to my wife and I over the years. It was Christmas 11 years ago when my parents impending divorce hit home (talk about a solemn "family" celebration). It was a few years afterward that Sara's grandmother passed way two days after Christmas. Then there was the 360-degree spin-out on the interstate on Christmas Eve while driving through 2 feet of snow. Last year, my father-in-law died a week before the holiday.
That's just a cliff notes version and doesn't include some of the minor debacles and my two-year experience of working in a toy store during the Christmas shopping season. (Trust me, that will jade anyone on Christmas.)
Needless to say, Christmas holds a lot of bad memories for me. I love Thanksgiving, but from Black Friday until New Year's Eve, I struggle with depression, anxiety, anger and frustration. I thought having a child would make Christmas better. In many ways, it only hightened my moods.
I say all that to say this: despite not liking Christmas and counting the days until our youth trip to Winter Xtreme on New Year's Eve, I can still find comfort and joy in Christ at Christmas. I can still count on God's Word to be true.
In fact, that's something Christmas makes obvious: God's word is reliable. All the prophecies about the Messiah's birth came true. Micah said he would be born in Bethlehem. Isaiah wrote that he would be born of a virgin. Those prophecies were made hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene. They were made before the Jewish people were deported to Babylon. Yet, each one came true.
As I reflect on Christmas and the negative thoughts creep in, I take solace in the fact that God's Word NEVER fails. His prophecies come true. What he predicted was accurate.
As a result, I can trust in his word. I can trust that Jesus IS the Messiah. I can trust that he is not dead, but alive and sitting at the right hand of God the Father. I can trust it, because God's word came true at Christmas - like it always does.
So while shopping, writing wish lists, watching Christmas specials and comptemplating the day, remember, Christmas proves God Word true. Trust in what it says.
The "Christmas season" has not been kind to my wife and I over the years. It was Christmas 11 years ago when my parents impending divorce hit home (talk about a solemn "family" celebration). It was a few years afterward that Sara's grandmother passed way two days after Christmas. Then there was the 360-degree spin-out on the interstate on Christmas Eve while driving through 2 feet of snow. Last year, my father-in-law died a week before the holiday.
That's just a cliff notes version and doesn't include some of the minor debacles and my two-year experience of working in a toy store during the Christmas shopping season. (Trust me, that will jade anyone on Christmas.)
Needless to say, Christmas holds a lot of bad memories for me. I love Thanksgiving, but from Black Friday until New Year's Eve, I struggle with depression, anxiety, anger and frustration. I thought having a child would make Christmas better. In many ways, it only hightened my moods.
I say all that to say this: despite not liking Christmas and counting the days until our youth trip to Winter Xtreme on New Year's Eve, I can still find comfort and joy in Christ at Christmas. I can still count on God's Word to be true.
In fact, that's something Christmas makes obvious: God's word is reliable. All the prophecies about the Messiah's birth came true. Micah said he would be born in Bethlehem. Isaiah wrote that he would be born of a virgin. Those prophecies were made hundreds of years before Jesus arrived on the scene. They were made before the Jewish people were deported to Babylon. Yet, each one came true.
As I reflect on Christmas and the negative thoughts creep in, I take solace in the fact that God's Word NEVER fails. His prophecies come true. What he predicted was accurate.
As a result, I can trust in his word. I can trust that Jesus IS the Messiah. I can trust that he is not dead, but alive and sitting at the right hand of God the Father. I can trust it, because God's word came true at Christmas - like it always does.
So while shopping, writing wish lists, watching Christmas specials and comptemplating the day, remember, Christmas proves God Word true. Trust in what it says.
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