By Bonnie Fair
You could pretty much say the world is going to hell in a hand basket.
Yeah, those words are not the words that tend to capture Christmas and all the trimmings and niceties of the season. Those words don’t ring sleigh bells or winter wonderlands or a holly jolly Christmas.
Truth, be it told, is that we and this world are walking on sinking sands.
Hearts are heavy. Fear has gripped feelings. Worry has invaded thoughts.
Doubts have lead to insecurities and going it alone and coming out standing on solid ground is impossible without a Perfect Presence.
Jesus comes in the midst of it all, the Perfect Presence. Our perfect plan of refuge.
He brings with Him hope for the whole world.
Peace for those whose hiding place is His heart.
Joy for those who know that God has us in His palm and will never let us go.
Love for those who believe that the only way to truly learn to Love is to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, and with all our mind.” (Matthew 22:37)
We remember the King who gave up His throne.
The only King who ever gave up his throne for His people.
He humbled himself and came to give us Heaven by showing us how to live,
by revealing how much Love can define a person,
by being the bridge that leads us into the realms of peace between God and man.
Someone so small, born in a stable, surrounded by live stock, would one day become the largest, most sought after man who would become loved by many, rejected by others.
Jesus becomes a place of hope in a hopeless, torn world.
Jesus becomes the only hope for our broken hearts.
Jesus the only one whose peace and righteousness can heal all hurts.
Jesus, the Messiah, the one who came and who will come again.
And he came as a babe and there was no room for him and he comes as a man and he whispers, will we make room for him in our hearts?
The Messiah was born in Bethlehem and became the spiritual food for our hungry souls. The living water for our thirsty and parched hearts. The bread of life for our stale souls.
We may be hanging by a thin line, driven close to the brink of believing that all is ruined, but from the ruins comes the Redeemer, from the doubts comes the Prince of Peace, from the fears comes the Wonderful Counselor. We hold onto the Christ Child who came to bring us Hope through it all.
The One who came and will come again, the Savior of the World.
Hope… it came as a bright star that broke through the dark, that broke into the hearts of men, that stirred the souls and longing that for years people had been waiting for.
Hope… it came from Bethlehem the tiny town of nothingness and it gave us the greatest Something that we could ever hope for.
Hope… it came humbled and small as a babe yet mighty and strong as a King.
Hope has come, has always come, and always will come for us.
His name will be the hope of all the world. (Matthew 12:21)