John 1:1-14; John 3:16-17

WOW! Here we are again asking ourselves, “Is it Christmas again already? It seems as though it was just Christmas, what was it…a year ago?” Where has the year gone? For some of us, we hope Christmas finds us with confidence, because we are fully prepared, wrapped, ribboned, cooked, baked, signed & sealed. For some of us, even knowing how quickly it approaches over the next few weeks, we could only hope for just another 2 or 3 days to get ready if Christmas would only consider being “fashionably late” this year. Still for some of us yet, our hope is that Christmas would simply pass us by this year.

This is a time of year, with all its regalia, that is supposed to usher in bright times & happy thoughts…HOPE! Even in the midst of over the top celebrations & even for the most festive of souls, it is difficult to forget those that we will spend Christmas without this year. Some have been gone from us for years. Some have been gone only weeks. Most all of us have experienced loss, & sometimes that loss steals our hope, or at least a little corner of it goes missing.

You may be one who will feel a sense of loss this Christmas season. Maybe you’ll hold a special ornament that stirs a meaningful memory. Maybe your heart will hurt a little without hope for another ornament to look forward to next season. Loss is difficult this time of year.

Mary lost at Christmas. She lost the upstanding reputation that her family & community had awarded her. She goes to visit her cousin & comes back 3 months later according to Luke 1:56 showing a baby bump even though she is not yet married to the carpenter who calls her his betrothed.

Joseph lost at Christmas. He thought he was about to lose the marriage he had so looked forward to. In Matthew 1:19, we read that “he had in mind to divorce her quietly” not wanting to expose her to public disgrace. Following His visit from the angel that assured him to proceed with taking Mary as his wife, He continued to lose popularity, possibly even business as he faithfully defended his position to marry the newest community outcast.

The innkeeper lost at Christmas. He lost out on hosting the Savior of the world. It wasn’t completely his fault. He rented rooms until someone filled every one of them. He was just doing his job, but we don’t even read about his presence in the stable when baby Jesus was born. We read about the shepherds in Luke 2 but not about the innkeeper.

Even in the midst of darkness of loss came the light of hope. John 1:9 reads, “The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world.”

Loss is a common part of the Christmas story. It’s part of our story…loved ones we miss so terribly at Christmastime. Your own holiday timeline may be riddled with lost opportunities. There comes a passage in Scripture, however, that reminds us that heaven lost someone special also at Christmas. You see, Jesus was on the throne in heaven. God saw fit that He would be humbled to a feeding trough. Confusing, I know, but it was the only way. It was God restoring hope. John reminds us in what may be the most frequently quoted verse of the Bible, chapter 3, verse 16, that “God so loved the world that he gave his one & only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

How saddening it must have been for the angels to see Jesus leaving the halls of heaven where He was sung to, worshipped, & praised, & then He entered the world as a helpless baby boy, largely unannounced, hardly celebrated, hunted by a jealous king, & born in a place where animals are not only kept, but where they eat, sleep, & even mess up. How hard it must have been for them to watch Him grow into adulthood, a time He’d be hated, envied, ostricized, shunned, again hunted by the jealous, arrested, tried in corrupt courts and palaces, & hours later killed.

The bigger picture was yet to be revealed. Jesus did not despair. God did not continually wring His hands forlorn over the future. No, remember HOPE was born as a baby, grew to a man, lived, died, & rose again to give us HOPE for eternity in heaven with Him! Nothing in God’s plan is hopeless.

Everything in God’s plan is HOPEFUL. Hope gives reason for celebration. It brings darkness into the light, it conquers death & gives way to life, it interrupts, invades, & intervenes with intensity! Christmases filled with impossibilities can now be filled with HOPE. It can take the “How will we make it?” questions of a young man & woman like Mary & Joseph or like you and make it into a “Hallelujah!”

You see, heaven’s loss was humanity’s gain. His purpose was salvation. His purpose was clearer than any midnight upon which He came that we would ever sing of. He came so that we could voice for hundreds of years over with certainty “God & sinners reconciled.” He came to give us HOPE, even when we hear of or experience for ourselves loss or tragedy. God gives hope. For those who place their hope in Him, humanity’s loss is heaven’s gain & Christmas is merry & bright again. You can grieve with hope, cry with hope, remember with hope, laugh with hope, celebrate with hope, because Jesus is hope. We all can. Hope came down at Christmas to make that all possible.

The end of someone’s life is never easy to capture in such brief moments as we attempt in a funeral or memorial service or a video. It still stings, but the Savior has taken the sting out of death, for we know that He has gone to prepare a place for those who have placed their faith & belief in Him alone. In John 14, He promised to “come back & receive us to Himself, so that where He is, we can be also.” John 3:17 begins, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” He goes on to say in that same chapter, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world…”

Jesus loves you & died for your sins. He’s the only way to heaven. At the end of your life, my prayer is that you are able to say exactly what a sweet, precious family member of ours who recently passed away said shortly before she met Jesus, “I’m gonna be okay. I’m just waiting on my King to come get me.” You see, she did NOT dread the end. She prepared for the end & what awaited her. She looked forward to seeing Jesus. She went out in joy. She was led forth in peace. She was able to lift her incredibly beautiful voice in praise to God. Her hands clapped with excitement as she found her new home. She reminded us, in more ways than one, the words of the prophet Isaiah in chapter 55, verse 12, “You will go out in joy & be led forth in peace; the mountains & hills will burst into song before You, & all the trees of the field will clap their hands.”

I’m sure if you could hear her from Heaven’s shores today, she would be wishing you a Christmas filled not with more ornaments or bigger presents, but with HOPE that continues long into the New Year.