the weary world rejoices

If I am not weary from trying to do too many things around Christmas, there have been years when I am weary and weighted down by the struggles in this life. Life is just hard sometimes, right? I imagine that some of you are dealing with some really difficult things as we near all these celebratory days. Maybe you feel like your world has been turned upside down and you are trying to figure out how the joy of Christmas is supposed to fit in with your heartache.

The first Christmas we celebrated after losing my daughter, Cora, to cancer was really hard. There was so much pain that came with seeing everyone so happy and together celebrating with their families when my heart was crushed and my family was broken. I vividly remember telling myself, “You just have to make it through Christmas. You just have to survive this year.” While there was some truth in that Christmas just looked different for me that year, I think I was missing something big. I could rejoice, no matter what my circumstances, because my hope was and is in Jesus. In a Christmas letter we received from Nancy Guthrie she referred to a line in Hark! The Herald Angels Sing! as she wrote, “Our great hope is that Christ will come again, not as a helpless baby in a manger, but as a magnificent king on a throne—a king who will be close enough, and gentle enough, to wipe every tear from our eyes. He will personally put an end to everything that has brought his people pain. He will “raise the sons of earth” by transforming “our lowly body to be like his glorious body” to live with him forever on a gloriously renewed earth. The wonder of it made the herald angels want to sing. And as the wonder of it begins to sink in, it makes us want to sing, too.”

That truth gives me perspective in the midst of great difficulty. If you can relate to this weariness, I pray that you would cling to God as your Comfort and Counselor. He invites us to come to him when we are weary and burdened and find true rest (Matthew 11: 28-30). Let’s allow Jesus to meet us in our weariness, trust in who He is, and rejoice in the HOPE that we find in Him as we sing of the wonder of His birth!