The Complexity of Christmas
This season full of wonder, gratitude, and hope often tends to get overshadowed by the loss of someone very important who I loved deeply. I lost my dad unexpectedly 7 years ago around this time. Every time we reach the point in the year where Michael Buble’s Christmas album starts playing on the radio, it leaves me with the question: can gratitude and pain coexist? And if so, how?
You could use a lot of well-meaning but unhelpful cliche phrases to try to address both questions and cope with the seemingly contradictory feelings. Phrases like:
Time heals all wounds.
Things will get better.
This too shall pass.
Give it to the Lord.
Just pray about it.
Jesus is the reason for the season.
But beyond the bumper sticker breaks in the silence of uncomfortable conversations and personal processing, I believe they miss a deeper truth that allows room for both gratitude and pain to coexist. They’re absent of meaning that actually produces, instead of fabricates, true gratitude and hope within me.
I’ve been studying a class on “Heaven & Earth” by The Bible Project, and through my study I’ve realized I often like to start at the end of the story when thinking about my future hope. Of course, it makes sense to do so. But I have a hard time understanding the implications of the future when I don’t fully understand the purpose in the beginning.
I’ve learned that since the beginning of time, God has invited human beings to partner with Him to rule and reign on earth in creating and cultivating that which leads to the flourishing of life. And for about as long, humans have chosen to forgo their true vocation in order to instead self-govern what is good and bad and to make a name for themselves. The test put in the garden revealed the true character of humanity. It revealed in the heart of man the desire to operate as self-sufficient and self-generating, with our purpose being center stage. I’m certainly no stranger to these impulses. But I’ve found that living life outside of my original purpose and design eventually brings self-destruction.
What Jesus truly accomplished was that He was given the same test and overcame it in the way humanity never could. I so readily accept that Jesus died for me but often miss that Jesus also died because of me. And the purpose of His death extends beyond me and to the restoration of all things in order that His image bearers might finally realize and live in their true identity that leads to abundant life.
“Christmas is an indictment before it becomes a delight... Christmas will not have its intended effect until we feel desperate with the need for a Savior. ”
While I believe that those in Christ spend eternity with Him, the future hope of this season also has implications for my here and now. My life is not on pause until future glory. By the power of the Holy Spirit living in me, I now have access to be able to live in a new identity today. I am empowered to be a piece of the reunion of heaven and earth in every interaction, in the way I handle grief, and loss, and disappointment, and shame, and betrayal, and in how I reflect Christ in my day to day exchanges and endeavors.
“My real identity is shaped not by this present moment but by my future destiny which is locked in the past in the resurrection of Jesus and in the future in my own passage from death to resurrection.”
Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you (1 Thessalonians 5:18). I can only give thanks when I recognize the gift I've received. The will of God isn’t some mysterious thing I have to go find. God’s will is for me to start from an understanding that everything I have in this life is a gift from Him. My life is not self-sufficient nor self-generating. When I operate from a posture of gratitude for the beauty, the life, the grace, and the blessing around me, I’m living out my purpose. And when I serve as a restorative agent for bringing God’s Kingdom here, today, on earth, I’m joining Him in His redemptive work. This is His will for me.
So, back to gratitude and pain. This side of heaven, pain, suffering, and death are still present. Faith and belief in Christ don’t make me immune. I sometimes forget that it was our sin that introduced these things into the equation in the first place and instead blame God for their presence. However, His plan and work have always been to “reverse the curse,” as my pastor would say. And because of what Christ has accomplished, pain and suffering no longer have power over my life, even when they’re still present.
“No matter how extravagant, no matter how grandiose, our praise can never over-exaggerate the blessing and glory and wisdom and honor and might of our God. As a consequence, our thanksgiving, no matter how lavish, will always underestimate the overabundance of His graciousness and kindness to us.”
This is the good news and what I think about when I hear the statement: “Jesus is the reason for the season.” One day we will see the full picture of the life that’s to come. Yet even as I wait, I have access to the blessing of its inheritance today in the midst of my pain and grief. And that’s what my gratitude and hope are anchored to as we approach Christmas and the close of this year.