When Everything Changed:God Brought Joy in Sorrow


Christmas is supposed to be a happy time!  At least that what our cultural Christmas says!  It's supposed to be all about silver bells, shopping, and stuffing our bellies with goodies!

But for many people, it isn't! For them, it's a time of sorrow.  They're grieving.  Some grieve the loss of loved ones.  Others grieve the loss of work, or the loss of community, or the breakup of a marriage, or alienation from friends or family.  Still others grieve the violence and injustice in our world.

We seem to be light years away from peace on earth!

But one of the great themes of the scriptural presentation of Jesus' birth is joy in sorrow.

Isaiah 35 records a message God sent his sorrowful people.  They were in exile in Babylonia.  They were sorrowful because they were away from their homeland in a strange place with no hope of returning home.

But in Isaiah 35, the prophet says God is going to bring them home in a joyful procession through the wilderness.  Joy and gladness will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will run away!

The theme of joy coming in amid sorrow echoes throughout the New Testament.  When Jesus was born, God's people were again sorrowful, crushed by Roman domination.  But good news bursts through to them!

In Luke 1:39-45, John the Baptist leaps for joy in his mother's womb when Mary greets his mother Elizabeth.  In Luke 2:10, the angel who appeared to the shepherds said he brought "good news of great joy!"  In John 16:20ff, Jesus told his followers that they were going to be sorrowful when he died, but that joy would come to them in his resurrection!

God brings us joy amid our sorrow.  The message of Christmas is that in the bleakness and darkness of our world, he brings the good news that the Savior has come and his kingdom is breaking into the world.

It's not a joy that ignores the pain.  It's a joy that overcomes the pain and blesses us all year!

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