A Christmas Reminder

Christmas can bring mixed emotions up for all of us. Maybe it's pain as you live through the holidays for the first time without a loved one. Maybe it's just been a year. Maybe Christmas brings you joy in the midst of a dark season. Maybe it makes your dark season darker. Whatever Christmas and this holiday season FEELS like. We must remind our souls of one thing Christmas should bring to us all, hope.

In the midst of your struggle, there's Hope. In your darkness, there is a Hope that shines like no other. Through every tear, there's a Hope to catch each one and that will turn your mourning to dancing. For every season, we have Hope.

We can get so caught up in the way that this season makes us FEEL that we forget to remind our souls of the Hope we have. We all enter this season seeking perfection. That perfect family picture. The perfect family moment. The perfect Christmas meal. The perfect conversations. The perfect... the perfect... the perfect. But what if we just took a step back and remembered the reason for Christmas. Jesus and His birth. The Savior of the world entering the world as a little babe. Completely innocent, white as snow. To only one day take on the scarlet sins of the world so we could live. So we could have relationship with Him. So we could be saved from ourselves. Hope. What if instead of seeking perfection this season, tomorrow, and the rest of the year, we realized that's not the focus. And Jesus' birth story was far from perfect. Mary was not married to Jospeh yet and was impregnated by the Holy Spirit. This raised causes of concern from Joseph, so much so that he was going to just end things with Mary. During that time especially, it was also veryyyy frowned upon. Additionally, Mary and Joseph rode for several days on the back of a donkey. Then when it came time to give birth to Jesus, our Savior, our Hope, there was no room for them in the inn. So Jesus was born in a manger- a trough for horses or cattle to eat from.

Jesus' birth may have not been "perfect," but do you think Mary and Joseph cared about anything else when they held the Hope of the world in their arms? Do you think any of the trials, struggles, anxiety, overwhelming feelings affected their joy in that moment? I'd say all the things they went through leading up to that moment made His birth even sweeter. Maybe... just maybe this season, you can take a step back and marvel at how God uses all the seasons, all the hurts, all the joys and turn it into beauty! Maybe you can take a step back and not turn bitter during moments of imperfection, but remind your soul of the Hope we have in the perfect and imperfect moments. What would it look like if we sat back and embraced the imperfect moments, instead of bury them? Let every moment, perfect and imperfect, planned and unplanned remind you of Jesus, our Eternal Hope.