joy to the world—

this christmas, i am more thankful than ever that the Savior loves me more than i deserve. that He would become flesh and abide on earth so that i might abide in Him for all the days of my life. He is the living image of compassion, abundant grace, patience in all circumstances, loyal love, and everlasting faithfulness. Jesus is goodness made flesh. 

and so, we sing joy to the world! the good news is the greatest gift that man can receive, and i’ve so enjoyed reflecting on the story of the life of Jesus. but, i’ve learned more and more that His birth was messier than the nativity scene we see so commonly during the holiday season…

see, we can imagine in part the struggle of traveling in the first century, and we can imagine in part the pain of child labor, and we can even empathize with the chaos of birthing humanity’s savior (okay, maybe not so much this one, but we can at least sympathize). what we don’t consider is the 90 miles mary and joseph travelled through flatlands and hills to get to bethlehem from nazareth, the inexplicable pain of a first century birth on top of the long-endured pain of judgmental whispers from outsiders looking in, and the reality and mess of an ancient shepherd’s stable (most likely a small, cold, damp cave covered in soot from fires and manure from sheep). in the words of andy stanley, His birth was “99% chaos and 1% hope. but without the chaos, we miss the hope.”

it’s in the chaos that we become more acquainted with the ever-present goodness of God. as we remember the distance mary and joseph travelled, we’re reminded of the infinite distance Jesus would travel so that we could become one again. as we imagine the unceasing pain of His birth, we’re reminded of the even more unceasing redemptive character of Jesus, who suffered our pain in our place. as we acknowledge the mess of a stable that Jesus stepped into, we remember that our God steps into our lives everyday to make beauty of our mess, all so that we could experience His goodness.

as we close out a chaotic year, i pray that you see hope intertwined through every bit of it. i pray that you experience His goodness in your soul today just as mary and joseph experienced goodness in the flesh. 

in a way, i envy mary and joseph for the way that they got to experience goodness made flesh in such an intimate way. in another way, i’m extremely grateful that i get to experience His goodness without the chaos of giving birth to the Messiah (let’s be honest with ourselves, we couldn’t have done it…). what i’m sure of is this: they did not wait until the chaos of His birth to decide what they believed about the goodness of God. they already knew Him to be compassion and grace and patience and love and faithfulness. so when chaos inevitably came, they could still cling so tightly to hope.

i urge you to do the same. as you exit a chaotic 2020 and enter an anticipant 2021, decide here and now what you know to be true about the goodness of God. trust in that goodness through the chaos, for suffering produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope.

merry christmas & happy holidays! praying joy over you and your loved ones & sending alllll the virtual hugs <3

-syd:)