By Megan Reimer, Student Writer
OTTERBURNE, MB – As we approach Christmas this year, there is joy and excitement in anticipating all the wonderful parts of the season. After all, aside from family meals, torn-open presents and a star-topped tree, Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of our Saviour. As the song suggests, it is even considered by some to be the most wonderful time of the year. However, the beauty of the Christmas season does not eliminate our trials. For some, the Christmas season is the opposite of anticipated: it can feel as painful as touching hot coals, wrought with painful memories and interactions. For many of us, the evenings might feel darker for numerous reasons this year, the snow heavier and increasingly oppressive. Personally, I am clawing for the joy of the season but struggling to find it. I want to glow like the bright Christmas bulbs on my house, but instead, I feel extinguished. Health struggles that have persisted in my life since last Christmas prohibit me from living in the ways I want to. I am constantly running into the brick wall of my humanity, and there is no time this hurts more than at Christmas. Maybe you find yourself on a similar path and feel unsure about how to approach the Christmas season through your hurt. Perhaps God feels absent to you during the very time we celebrate his coming to Earth.
However, I believe that rather than prohibiting us from participating in the Christmas season, pain and awareness of our humanity can bring us even closer to the true story of Christmas. This may sound far-fetched, but the centering of Jesus’ birth at Christmastime brings into focus the reality of suffering; namely, our humanness. As Jesus entered the world that night in Bethlehem, he was born into a body of skin and bones just like yours and mine. Our suffering servant who embraced humanity understands what we feel because of what began that night in Bethlehem. Jesus gave himself to the world, suffered, and eventually died on a cross. As we read in Isaiah 53:3, “He was despised and rejected – a man of suffering, acquainted with deepest grief.” Jesus’ birth into our world caused him immense pain, but he did it for us. Although it is mind-blowing, his steps on this planet were as real as our own footprints in the snow, and he continues to walk with us. So, how does our suffering draw us into the Christmas season? Jesus’ gift in coming to Earth and living in a body seems all the more significant when we understand how challenging inhabiting a body can be. If we find ourselves stepping out into a snow globe of hurt this Christmas, I would like to propose that we have the potential to reach a deeper understanding of the price Jesus paid in fully taking on humanity to be close to us.
Although we could leave it at that, God’s good news extends beyond a Saviour who understands our suffering and culminates in a God who saves us. The baby born in Bethlehem grew into one who faced the ultimate suffering to crown us as his people. As Isaiah goes on to say after the earlier verse, Isaiah 53:5 says: “Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…by his wounds we are healed.” Our theme this year in Providence Community Chapel has been “What is so good about the good news?” and to me, this is it. God will sit with us in our suffering, and although we may not see an end to it while our feet touch this earth, God will lift us up. To conclude, I want you to still your mind and imagine a scene. The night is dark with only a few stars peppering the black expanse. You peer into a small shed, illuminated by a lamp, with two figures inside. A young woman is crying out with labour pains. The man standing over her is in great distress, pacing and wringing his hands. Soon, you hear crying. You see blood and a new life. It is messy, wonderful, and human. Through suffering, God has come. In our pain, we are comforted. This is good news.
