“Oh Come, Oh come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. That mourns in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appears. Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel, shall come to you, Oh Israel.”
One of the favorite traditions of the Christmas season is to turn on the Christmas tree lights and light up the night. Who doesn’t love decorating the Christmas tree, then turning out all the other lights in the room to enjoy the ambience of the twinkling lights? Even a single candle burns brightly against the backdrop of darkness.
This tradition is well suited to the real celebration of the season. John 3:19 says that when Jesus Christ was born, the light came into the world. In fact, more than two hundred times in the Bible, God is described as light. Figuratively and literally, whenever God appears, light appears. It happened in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, and it will happen at the end of time; the book of Revelation tells us that in hell there will only be darkness and in heaven there will only be light.
Have you ever been in some pitch-black place when you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face? That’s what life is like without Jesus. You can’t fully appreciate the light until you feel the weight of the darkness.
If you feel lost, alone, and trapped – searching but not finding – Jesus Christ is the light.
If you feel cruelly crushed under the wrongs done to you, Jesus Christ is the light.
If you feel perplexed by an issue or circumstance that you can’t figure out, Jesus Christ is the light.
Maybe loneliness, despair, fear, and confusion describe you. If you want to know the way out, you first have to admit that you’re in darkness. You may not be ready to die, but you’re also not fully living. You don’t see any purpose or meaning to life, and you don’t see any hope worth trusting. But all that can change right now.
Like any other genuine follower of Christ, nothing made sense to me either before I turned to Jesus. I couldn’t sort out anything in this mixed-up world. But since receiving Jesus as my Savior, I understand what’s going on. Although life still isn’t perfect, and never will be until eternity, I realize what my own sin does to my life. Suddenly Christmas is so much more than a stale exchange of gifts and some silly guy in a red suit. At Christmas those of us who know Him celebrate the forgiveness of sin that can be found only in Jesus, the gift of Christmas.
Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel, shall come to you!
Suggested reading: A Max Lucado 3-in-1 special: Come Thirsty, Traveling Light, Next Door Savior
In Come Thirsty, Max Lucado encourages you to visit the well and drink deeply, to receive Christ’s work on the cross, the energy of his Spirit, and his lordship over your life, and his unending, unfailing love.
Using the illustration of weary travelers in Traveling Light, Lucado invites us to release the burdens of our excess baggage that we were never intended to bear–with the Twenty-third Psalm as our guide.
In Next Door Savior, master storyteller Max Lucado presents the life of Jesus Christ in stunning contrast, revealing the irresistible human qualities and the undeniably divine characteristics of Jesus. Lucado describes, as only he can, a Savior who is as approachable as a next-door neighbor, yet mighty enough to save humanity.
Tags: Confusion, Despair, Failure, Fear, Freedom, Happiness, Happy Life, Living a Happy Life, Loneliness, Overcoming Discouragement, Pain, Victorious Life