My mom and I decided to call this holiday season a wash and just start over next year. These past few weeks have been difficult to say the least for so many of my loved ones, and the holidays just didn't seem that merry this year. But as I started to think about this season being a wash, I realized that the holidays are a wash, literally.
We cannot celebrate the birth of this sweet baby we call, Jesus, without focusing on the reason that he was born and the reason he was sent to us. The great rescue story. The Father sent the Son for us. "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6). He came to wash away our sins.
In the midst of all that is going on in my own life and in the lives of so many that I love during this holiday season, God reminds me of the reason for this season. He reminds me that His grace is constant. When I choose to lean on him and rely on him, He provides peace. He sent His son, the Prince of Peace, not to bring world peace, but to be peace on this earth (Luke 2:14). He is our peace during this time of trouble and uncertainty and struggle and fear.
Jesus was born to be our peace on this earth. And then, he died on the cross to wash away our sins. But he didn't leave us alone. The Father sent us a helper. John 14:26-27 says this, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid."
I am overwhelmed by the gentle reminder from the Father during this Christmas season of his love for his Children. He sent his son to be peace on this earth, to die on the cross to wash away our sins, and then sent a helper to continue to be our reminder and our peace until Jesus returns. So, regardless of the struggles that my family and loved ones are going through, we remember that "since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in hope of the Glory of God. More than that we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (Romans 5:1-5).
