Dear COA family,
Blessed Christmas to everyone!
Christmas is a season (12 days) marked by joy and thanksgiving!
· At the birth of Jesus, the angel of the Lord declared to the shepherds, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10)
· When the wise man subsequently visited Jesus, they “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10)
· One of our favourite Christmas carol is “Joy to the world the Lord is come”
We rejoice greatly because God has not forgotten us but has visited us to bring salvation to all of us sinners who have been separated from God. Our Lord Jesus, who is God with us, will “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21)
We rejoice because there is now new and eternal hope for a world filled with darkness!
Yet have you ever thought of how Jesus would have felt coming into this world? Would he have been filled with the happiness and cheerfulness that we now experience at Christmas (“the most wonderful time of the year”)? Would he have rejoiced in a season of celebration?
I think not.
Jesus knew his mission from the beginning. The Scriptures tell us that Jesus was “the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world” (Revelation 13:8) and that he knew his mission from God to die for the sins of mankind from the very beginning. He embraced his Father’s command willingly to lay down his life for the world (John 10:18).
In the garden of Gethsemane, he prayed, “‘Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.’” (Luke 22:42)
He must have carried his mission with grief, foreboding and pain in his heart.
Yet Jesus was most willing to be born as a baby to bring hope to us all. He put our needs before his own because of his great love for us. Man will live forevermore because of Christmas day!
Beloved, we can learn from the example of our Lord at Christmas that we need not be happy in all that we are called to do for the Lord. Yes we can be filled with joy but our emotions may not be filled with ecstasy. And this is fine because ultimately, it is the will of the Lord that matters.
May we seek to fulfil the Lord’s will fully in our lives in the coming season and year ahead and so fully enter into the joy of the Lord!
Revd ian