Isn’t it interesting that the Christmas star appeared this year? Not last year, nor the year before, or even ten years ago. This year. The year of 2020. A year that has been filled with chaos, tension, and fear.
It is not an accident that the Christmas star appeared this year for the first time since 1226.
And what is the Christmas star associated with…the birth of Jesus Christ. A baby born in a manager. God and sinless man as one.
He came at a time in history filled with desperation. The top 10% ruled over the other 90% made up mainly of peasants. They were taxed relentlessly, up to 50-60% of their income…a number we aren’t too far away from. They lived in a society that oppressed them politically and took advantage of them economically.
They were in a desperate state. And desperate people need hope. Not some shoddy, half-formed substitute for hope or the kind where people go, “I hope it goes well.” But the gritty, real, supernatural, miraculous kind of hope. The hope that changes lives and renews the spirit.
Hope.
THE author’s pen waits a speck above the page of history, a grim expression, yet faint smile….because HOPE is about to enter the picture. Hope found in the One Who Calls the Morning Stars By Name, who breathed the sun into existence, who says I will call myself, Immanuel…God with people, God with us.
There’s no simple path it takes. Mary and Joseph take a long road and are greeted into their ancestor’s town with no welcome, no greeting, no meager offering of lodging, but a simple stable.
He, the Christ child, enters the world in blood and fluids, making claim to His humanness, but He speaks and He acts and He thinks, no sin marring His slate, and He is not only man, He is God.
He says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
He whispers, “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.”
He exclaims, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
And He breathes out words of salvation, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
He is the God of Hope.
So 2020, while the world may be falling into trepidation and chaos and turmoil, I claim the hope of Christ. The hope that speaks of truth and love as one, the hope that says everything works together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose, the hope of Immanuel…God with us.
Hope.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world,” – John 16:33
~ Southern Dreamer
Southern Dreamer 