The Christmas season is a time filled with joy, anticipation and giving. As families gather around tables to celebrate the coming of our Savior, they savor delightful meals and enjoy wonderful fellowship while creating new memories to treasure. However, Christmas can also be a time of insurmountable pain. Some will spend Christmas without their loved ones due to death or distance. Others will reminisce on a better Christmas past. Many will feel lonely and sad as they compare their tragic situations to what seems to be a season of happiness and joy.
As we look forward to the Advent of Christ, we are comforted by the very incarnation of Jesus, who emptied himself of all splendor and glory to take on our human predicament (Phil. 2:2-6).
John writes in his gospel, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth … . For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (John 1:14, 16, ESV).
Since we worship a Savior who was born in our flesh and lived what we live, He eagerly sits around our table of laughter and joy and partakes with us in the wonderful moments of our lives. At the same time, we are comforted by a Savior who became flesh in order to suffer on our behalf and thus, is all the more present at the strike of every tear and the beating agony of every heart. As the Body of Christ, then, let us this Advent season be present at every table. Let us live incarnational lives that exemplify a Savior who came down and walked among us so that we might one day rise and walk with Him.
Admissions Counselor, M.Div. Student