Do you feel pulled in so many directions this Christmas season? I know I sure have. It is hard to accomplish so many events and tasks so we can feel comfortable or peaceful with all that we think others want of us. We find ourselves contemplating the words of Joan Osborne song “One of Us” when she says, “What if God was one of us?” We ask, what would God do with the situation we find ourselves during the Christmas season?
Christians have recently come through Advent (the season of the church year prior to Christmas). Being a Christian pastor, the four themes of the season come to mind: hope, love, joy and peace (and not always in that order). Hope is waiting for what we long for yet don’t have at present (Romans 8:24-25). Love is the very nature of God. God is love (1 John 4:8). He so loved us he gave his Only Son for us (John 3:16). Joy is our very strength (Nehemiah 8:11). Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the presence of God with us.
We long for all four of these concepts. We hope, we love, we take joy, and we have peace, but not completely. We can truly experience each of these when we trust in God. It isn’t easy, but to continue Joan Osborne’s thought, God is one of us. That is what Isaiah 7:14 calls the event. The name of the son is Immanuel — translated as God with us.
The Christian Gospel says Jesus is with us, Immanuel. He made his dwelling with us (John 1:14).
We all have our regrets. The past shouldn’t define us, and that is freeing. In A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens has Ebenezer Scrooge begged the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, “Why show me this if I am past all hope?” As Scrooge found out, he wasn’t beyond hope, and neither are we.
None of us are beyond hope. That is the good news of the Christmas season. Whether this time of the year finds you encouraged or struggling with life, know that God loves you. Because of that we have hope, love, joy and peace that comes from Him.
• Fred LaPlante is the pastor at Juneau Church of the Nazarene. “Living and Growing” is a weekly column written by different authors and submitted by local clergy and spiritual leaders. It appears every Saturday on the Juneau Empire’s Faith page.
