This year Christmas took a different spin for me.
The word that kept coming up and sticking with me? Freedom.
This year Christmas came in the midst of more change/newness of circumstances than I’ve ever experienced in one year. It came in the midst of tight chest, racing heart and never-stopping mind. It came in the midst of transition that threatens to paralyze.
And I’m listening to my pastor talk about how the “host of heaven’s armies” has a military connotation, how Jesus came to a people oppressed by force. And he’s reminding us that Jesus came to liberate.
And I’m talking to a friend about how trusting God is what I need to work on. And the words that she speaks bring comfort to my soul: “We all have certain bents for what we’re gifted in, but we also have certain bents for what we’ll struggle with. Some people are just more prone to be anxious. But that also makes up your personality. Rather than thinking that we can just get over it, we need to realize it’s going to be a lifelong battle. That’s what discipleship with Jesus looks like.” Jesus does not expect perfection from me but rather desires that I struggle through my lack of perfection with Him.
And I’m beginning to see how God is using this.
One, two, three, four, five conversations. Five people who have dealt or are dealing with anxiety. Five ways that I’ve been able to connect with people on a deeper level. There’s something about the way He takes brokenness and begins to piece it together that is just so beautiful.
The words of Zacharias stand out this year:
“To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.”
Zacharias says these words when the Holy Spirit comes upon him just after his son John (eventually John the Baptist) is born. I can’t help but wonder what Zacharias thinks it means that they will be “rescued from the hands of [their] enemies”. The Jews expected the Messiah to come and be a military leader, which isn’t how it happened. But as I read these words, I’m struck by them. The freedom Jesus would bring them from their enemies would not be the removal of their presence. Instead, He would free His people from fear; taking away the power their enemies had over them.
As I read this I see it in my life, the now, but not yet:
Jesus came to free me from the power of sin and will one day free me from its presence.
And there’s such beauty in this. There’s such hope in knowing that one day we will be in unity with The Father, no longer struggling with sin. But there’s also hope in knowing that Jesus is at work in our brokenness, making us whole again. He’s giving us freedom to walk “in holiness and righteousness before Him all our days”, despite our struggle with sin.
And I’m reminded how it’s in the very raw, bare wounds that Jesus is working healing.
That He’s not just about removing the pain, but about working out the cause of our pain.
The words of a Christmas carol say it well:
Oh come thought Dayspring,
come and cheer
our Spirits by thine advent here.
And pierce the gloomy clouds of night,
and death’s dark shadow put to flight.
Rejoice, rejoice, Immanuel
shall come to thee oh Israel.
Christmas speaks the truth of all of life:
That God steps down into our dark, broken lives and brings light.
The baby who was born to bring freedom continues to do so.
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