Even in a challenging and often tragic year, the light of Christmas shines through.
The ongoing pandemic has changed nearly every aspect of life across the U.S., and the holiday season is no different. Boisterous family gatherings are off the table this year, and most will only be celebrating with their immediate family members. Virtual get-togethers have taken the place the warmth of hugs and handshakes. Loss seems to pervade everything.
And yet, this is a season of hope.
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Johnson County pastors have helped their congregations weather the storm that has been 2020. At Christmas, three of them have taken time to share in their own words what the birth of Christ means, and how we can draw strength from that momentous occasion.
Chris Philbeck
Mount Pleasant Christian Church
When I think about Christmas, I think about hope.
God’s people had been waiting in faith for Him to send the Messiah for a long time. Because there were so many prophecies about him, there was a lot of speculation.
They didn’t always get the details right, but what they did get right was the hope of something new. And Jesus was the fulfillment of that hope.
That stands out to me this Christmas in particular, because if ever there were a year when people needed the hope of something new, it’s 2020. After ten months of living under the thumb of the coronavirus along with the most divisive election season in my lifetime, we all need a little hope for something new.
The good news is Hope was born in Bethlehem and Hope continues to live today. So, my Christmas verse for 2020 is Romans 12:12: “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction faithful in prayer.”
I know those words weren’t written in the context of Christmas, but those are the words I’m hanging onto. Matthew West has written a song called “You’re Still the Hope of Christmas.” Here are the words of the chorus: “You’re still the hope of Christmas. You’re still the light when the world looks dark. You’re still the hope of Christmas. And you’re still the hope of my heart.”
Christmas reminds me of the hope of Jesus.
Wayne Murray
Grace Assembly of God
If there is one thing that we have learned in 2020, it is to not take anything for granted.
Gathering together with your family on holidays is not a given. The ability to travel, the freedom to visit your elderly parents, attending weddings or graduations have been uncertain or impossible. Even the availability of toilet paper has been in question. Nothing can be taken for granted in 2020.
What have you taken for granted in 2020?
I think sometimes we take Christmas for granted. Not just the traditions and the activities of the holidays but the actual original beginning of Christmas. The story of a baby born to a virgin is not only miraculous, it’s the best news of all time.
God so loved the world that He sent His Son to save us. The angel proclaimed in Luke 2:11, “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
Perhaps all the challenges we are all facing this Christmas — health, financial, relational or otherwise — will remind us to not take anything for granted, including the sobering fact that we are loved by the God who made us. May this Christmas be the year that we are truly grateful for God’s gift by loving Him completely in return.
Jason Gallman
Community Church of Greenwood
The wood of the manger has meaning because of the wood of the cross.
During this Christmas season, we remember the birth story of Jesus. We sing songs, light candles and put up decorations that remind us of that day when God broke through human history and sent his son to be born in a stable to a young couple with a lot of grit and faith.
Two thousand years of tradition, trinkets, and tinsel can gloss over the raw details of what really happened on that day in Bethlehem. Jesus, fully God and fully human, was born in the middle of a mess.
He would grow up and experience the pain, isolation, and fatigue that we experience. He would preach good news to the poor, he would heal the sick, and he would be executed on a wooden cross and make a way for our relationship with God to be restored.
And then, he would rise from the dead, and prove to the world that he was who he claimed to be.
Through our belief in Him, we find now — in the middle of our own mess in 2020 — a hope, love, joy and peace that is eternal.
