Christmas is for YOU!
Christmas is a tender time and yet it is a moment in all of our lives when heaven bids us come into the heart of joy.
You might be dealing with emotional pain this year, but that doesn’t mean you are excluded from the joy of Christmas. If your heart is broken this year, that doesn’t mean the song of the angels has no meaning for you. Perhaps you are in the midst of grief, discouragement or even depression but even that doesn’t preclude you from the eternal celebration of God’s love.
Conversely, if you are deliriously happy with your life, the happiness of this singular time of year is immeasurable.
I want to talk to both groups of Christmas people today…those who are sad and those who are happy. Wherever you are on your emotional spectrum, Christmas is especially for you!
Joy is palpable this time of year, is it not? It seems that all of Western culture celebrates with joy – even though they don’t know what it is that they are celebrating! All they know is that in December there is an unseen reason for music, merry-making, gathering and for giving! The world responds like this at no other time and for no other event…only for Christmas!
Let’s go digging for gold in the Christmas story together and quietly observe one lovely place where the word “joy” is used to describe what was happening historically. Let’s allow this age-old story to strengthen our weary souls. Believe me – you are going to LOVE this! And let me say – the joy of Christmas is especially for those of you whose worlds have been impacted by circumstantial pain and situational letdown…so, read on!
Shepherds were a crew of dirty, uneducated men with grime under their fingernails and nothing to look forward to – they knew that nothing about their lives would ever change. Life can become quickly pointless if you are a man who lives with sheep drool on his clothes and sheep dung between his toes.
There were a group of these shepherds one night, huddled around a fire in the inky, black of night. These muddy specimens of humanity were cold and shivering while trying to stay awake. Suddenly, in an instant of time, something so miraculous happened that life would never again be the same for these men. And the miracle of it all is that life will never be the same for you, for me, or for all of humanity!
Unexpectedly, heaven exploded into their small, cold and dark world. The song of the angels burst forth into the earth and proclaimed the joy of heaven into the hopeless existence of the shepherds. Stars were falling and bursting in rare and glorious colors while the heavens opened and a majestic angel choir began to sing a mighty symphony that can still be heard today!
Jesus invaded this dark, cold world with heaven’s joy, and it is still His gift to you today. His presence in your life makes shepherds dance and angels sing. Your heart can become an explosion of joy because of the birth of a baby over 2,000 years ago.
And what was the song that the angels sang that dark night?
“And behold, we bring you good news of great joy which shall be to all the people; for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord.” – Luke 2:10
The first word that the angels used to describe the birth of Jesus Christ was the word “joy” and I believe that it should be the first word used to describe you as well! Joy is the birthmark of a Christian because when you accept Jesus into your heart you are branded for life with His joy.
When the angels sang that night, they were singing to those of you with the drool of life upon your heart and the dung of circumstances in your soul. The symphony of heaven ricochets through the ages and has as its focused destination your cold and lonely existence. Joy truly has come to your world and nothing will ever be the same again!
But that grand star didn’t stop shining that night; it continued on to lead others into His presence as well. The star led the Magi to the Light of the World! When the magnificent star stopped the Magi in their wealthy tracks, the Bible says that these learned men, “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy”. And what a celebration began that night!
Just as you savor your Christmas dinner morsel by morsel – we will savor the response of the wise men as well.
The word “rejoiced” is translated as “let the hope of future blessedness give you joy! This word communicates to all of us, from every generation and at every moment in all of recorded history, that because of the baby born in the manger, we can look ahead not with dread and worry but with hope and expectation.
The wisemen rejoiced“exceedingly” and this word is defined as “greatly” or even “violently” or vehemently. The joy that they experienced in the presence of Jesus rocked their academic world! These men were jumping up and down in the presence of the Baby Boy King. The Magi were whooping and hollering because after years of study, after decades of hitting dead-ends as to the meaning of life, they had found the Creator of this miraculous universe.
“Great” as used in this context means “with great effort of the affections and emotions of the mind”. It is significant that this particular definition of the word “great” includes the word for “mind”. The Magi were men of scrolls and cerebral intensity; at the moment this star stopped in the presence of Jesus, all that they had ever learned or studied paled in comparison to this one momentous event.
And finally, but far from least in meaning, the word “joy” is defined as “the blessedness that the Lord enjoys”. When they discovered the baby boy, they also tapped into the mother lode of joy! They hit a vein so rich and generous in joy that it changed every detail, both large and small, concerning their impressive lives. Every blessing that the Magi had and you now have is because of Christmas!
“In His Presence is fullness of joy!” – Psalm 16:11
You have become a vessel of His presence and it is the only place that you will ever experience true and complete joy this Christmas season.
Christmas is for you, my friend! Joy has certainly come to your world!