The defeat of Fear and Sorrow at Christmas

I have been so challenged the last few days thinking about the similarities between the state of the world at the time of Jesus' birth and our own today. As I contemplated this, I was trying to write our annual Christmas letter and wrote about this. But (after much prodding by my husband!) I ultimately rewrote the letter and didn't include any of this. So, I just figured I'd put it in here! Here it is:

What a year this has been. Record unemployment, seemingly impregnable businesses collapsing, safe investments evaporating. Political discourse full of vitriol and divisiveness and nations across the world experiencing turmoil and revolution. Add to all that the personal tragedies and challenges many of us have faced of illness, accident, loss. Uncertainty, confusion, fear, sorrow threaten us individually and nationally, and many wonder, where is God in all this?

A little over 2000 years ago, the Israelites, oppressed and occupied by the mighty Roman empire, might have wondered the same thing. 50% of the population were slaves. The other half of the population paid over half of their meager income in taxes to the hated Roman government. The frequent rebellions and uprisings were ruthlessly squashed by the Romans with mass public executions. And surely, most painful and perplexing of all, God had not spoken to His chosen people through a prophet in over 400 years. 400 years of silence and wondering whether perhaps God had abandoned and rejected His beleaguered people. Fear and sorrow. Are those not our enemies as well?

Yet in the midst of so much fearful uncertainty and sorrow, in a time much like our own, God came. On that silent night so many centuries ago, an angel’s glorious announcement split the star-strewn skies over the hills of Bethlehem. The stunned and frightened shepherds cowered as the angel declared, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” (Lk 2:10-11) Did you catch it? The first words from the angel--”Fear not” and “good news of great joy”--were words addressing and conquering their greatest foes, and ours, of fear and sorrow.

The Lord has not abandoned us! His silences, even in the midst of our fears and sorrows, do not mean He is not on the move: preparing, redeeming, transforming. That first Christmas, in the darkness and despair, He did not send advice or reinforcements or positive affirmation. No, He came Himself: the Sovereign Lord enclosed in the tiny body of a helpless infant. An infant-Lord born to one die and redeem the world He had created.

Because He is God, there is absolutely nothing He cannot see or know or do. He can heal the most damaged relationships, redeem the most hopeless circumstances, save the most hardened hearts. But because He is man, there is nothing He cannot fully understand and sympathize with, and, thereby encourage and strengthen. He knows what it is to suffer loss, to bear insults, to feel pain, to feel exhaustion and deep sorrow. The Omnipotent One also fully knows and bears with us and for us.

As the words to one of our favorite Christmas carols put it: “O come, Thou Dayspring, come, and cheer our spirits by Thine Advent here; dispense the gloomy clouds of night, and death’s dark shadows put to flight. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!” Just as Emmanuel came to Israel in the fear and sorrow of her oppression and darkness, so, too He comes to us, dispensing “death’s dark shadows.” How can we not rejoice if He has come and is right here with us, even in the uncertain and challenging times in which we live. Don’t be afraid--the Savior has come! Rejoice--Emmanuel is with you. Might we all rejoice this Christmas that He is with us and for us, no matter what we may be facing.