The holidays should bring us joy and reunions with friends and family. We should be able to approach them with expectation and anticipation.
But some years we can’t.
Some years, too much has changed from the way it was to fully embrace where we are.
We have been blessed this year and we are looking forward to our holiday celebrations, but we have also had the privilege and challenge of walking with some of our friends as they travel a road marked with sorrow this season. It is not easy for those who walk through trials or those who walk with them.
I want to offer hope and encouragement to you this Christmas season. Whether you are grieving losses anew or dreading the tension at a family gathering, remember the reason we celebrate and let it bring you hope and healing.
Jesus came to Earth in humility and love, to show us how to live in that same way. So when we face situations and people that do not live in such a way, we can still choose the way of grace and humility.
He wishes for us to live an abundant and full life.
He knows our sorrows and the things that threaten to steal our joy and rob us of our abundance. In Isaiah 53, it says, He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief… Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. He already knows and understands exactly where you are.
He has already carried your burdens for you…
…will you let him do it again?
It is not easy to walk a road filled with sorrow and tension, but it is only for a short while. For those who are now in sorrow, joy will come again.
And now, GOD, do it again— bring rains to our drought-stricken lives So those who planted their crops in despair will shout hurrahs at the harvest, So those who went off with heavy hearts will come home laughing, with armloads of blessing. Psalm 126:4-6 (MSG)
God will restore your joy and bring you healing if you let him.
He is willing, are you?
Sometimes it feels easier, at least momentarily to stay in the pain – it becomes a familiar place, but God desires more for you, and not just during the holidays, but all year.
The holidays do sometimes bring forth the reminders of what once was and what will never be. Allow yourself to remember and to feel. Be there for those whose pain is fresh.
Live joyfully and look for those armloads of blessing, even if they seem small at first, soon there will be too many to count.
About Emily Buller
Words I needed to hear this holiday season–and others I’m sure. Thanks for sharing. The surest way to defeat sorrow in this time is to dwell on our rich blessings instead.
May you be encouraged this season and see the blessings in the new traditions you are building with your family.
Once again your message of encouragement is like a balm on the wound of my soul. Christmas season has been so very different this year with the loss of my dad last year and mom mother this year. I don’t know if it’s because of the place I’m in or not, but it seems that God has been sending messages of encouragement and reminders of Who He is in our lives…especially in our places of sorrow, pain and weakness. Thank you for following His leading and allowing Him to use you as an encouragement in our lives. Blessings to you and your family during this Christmas season and in the New Year.
Thank you, Lauren. Blessing to you and yours this season as well.
Thanks – really needed to hear this today. God is so good to speak to us!
thanks for the kind reminder that even tho’ we may be doing ok this year, it won’t always be that way…and vice versa! we can be loving to those in pain this season even if we must tone down our own enthusiasm at times…for their sake.
maybe that is one of the things Scripture means when it speaks of “caring for a weaker brother” (or sister).
hope your xmas is a joyful one this year as you love “weaker brethren” and encourage them along the way.