At Christmas there is a wonderful joy as we celebrate the birth of the Saviour, Jesus Christ, who came to save His people from their sins.
We remember the Word became flesh, making His dwelling among us. We remember the angel song as the heavenly host rejoiced while the shepherds watched. We remember an account of wise men from the East following a His star and coming to present Him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh.
It is glorious. It is what we would expect as God Himself enters our world
And then we see a young woman arriving in Bethlehem, the city of David, knowing that she is almost ready to give birth.
A young woman who society would have spurned because the conception had taken place before marriage.
A young woman who has been uprooted because of an emperor's decree in a foreign land.
A young woman who discovers that there is no room in the inn.
And so the Saviour is born and laid in a manger.
A place of dirt,and poverty, rejection and loneliness.
Our cute and cozy images of Christmas, from beautiful Christmas cards and countless nativity plays are suddenly shattered when we take in the reality of that night when Christ was born.
It was hard, it was bleak, it was inhumane.
But it was also God's choice.
Not to enter this world as a glorious warrior or prince.
But to humble Himself and to enter fully into the difficulties, the pain, the hardship of mankind.
This is how we know that Christmas is a time of hope.
Many people struggle at Christmas. Emotionally, financially, with sickness, with pain.
And they wonder how that can be if God is with us.
Then,as we look at a baby in a manger we can see that it is so much more than just a phrase, a nice idea, a religious nicety to make us feel better.
It is the truth.
That God with us means that God can say I have experienced what you are going through. I know how the world can spit you out, spurn you, turn its back on you. Leave you lonely and cold.
This baby grew to be a refugee, lost His earthly father at a young age, was opposed by leaders, falsely accused, betrayed, denied and abandoned by His closest friends and ultimately despised by men and regarded as smitten by God as He endured the pain and humiliation of the cross and died in our place.
The dirt, the squalor, the cold and pain of that night in Bethlehem give us the knowledge that God is truly with us.
They give us a peace in knowing that God will never abandon us, never forsake us.
Most us all they tell us that God understands everything that you might be going through.
Because He chose to enter in to our humanity.
Because He chose to see everything through our eyes.
Because God became man.
And so we can celebrate and rejoice.
Because God is with us.
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