I wrote this post last Christmas, but I sense it might be more relevant this year as we’ve navigated 2020. I’ve made some edits to the piece – but there’s something that I can’t alter: the unchanging hope that Christmas brings. May His hope be our anchor this season and always.

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Maybe you’re done being merry. You’re tired of faking holly and jolly. You couldn’t care less about goodwill toward man. And, as for peace on earth? You’ve dusted off those make-believe crumbs long ago.

Things have not panned out for you the way you’d hoped when January 2020 dawned. Situations that looked promising have now been dampened by the reality of the last almost 12 months. Maybe there’s still no job, no promotion, no pregnancy, or no special person in the picture. Maybe, instead, there was illness and unexpected loss. It’s like 2020 was mocking you, jeering at your dreams, and thinking up ways to disappoint you.

But even as you grapple with snuffed out hopes and feelings of failure, let’s take a minute to listen to the story of a girl whose life was turned upside down . . .

She’s a young woman in love. Her fiancé has posted pictures on social media with #shesaidyes and #luckiestguyalive! They are waiting for the professional engagement photos where they posed holding hands in fields bathed in the golden light of dusk (wearing color-coordinated outfits during “magic hour,” obviously). She’s planning to go wedding-dress shopping with her besties and knows that she wants the mermaid style lace dress in an eggshell white. She picked out the colors for the living room for the newly-weds’ first home together and is crossing her fingers that fiancé will agree.

While this is a 21st-century imagining, it can’t be too different from what happened in a remote Jewish town to a young girl called Mary pledged to be married to Joseph.

The year ahead was going to be picture-perfect. Everything was planned down to the last detail. But then all her plans come to a screeching halt. She finds out she is pregnant. Worse still, she is unwed and pregnant.

This is not an Instagrammable moment. There’s no hashtag that can quite capture the magnitude of what she is experiencing. But what does this young girl whose plans have been totally upended do?

In the book of Luke, we see that within moments of learning that she is with child, Mary pours out her heart in adoration and praise to God. What a peculiar, unfathomable response to a situation that has thrown your life into absolute disarray.

If Mary really considered at the nitty-gritty of her situation, it would have been downright disheartening. Given the culture and time period, the most likely scenario was divorce and possibly a lifetime of being ridiculed and mocked. She would likely have had to live as an outcast for the rest of her life. But this young woman looks past her circumstances to a God who works in ways far beyond what she can comprehend.

Her words don’t have a hint of fear but are filled with worshipful awe for a powerful, promise-keeping God.

The Message version puts it like this:

And Mary said,

I’m bursting with God-news;
I’m dancing the song of my Saviour God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I’m the most fortunate woman on earth!
What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.

(Luke Chapter 1)

In that moment, as she worshipped, Mary didn’t have all the answers. Far from it.

But smack dab in the middle of the unknown, even with all her plans crashing in on her, Mary knew that she carried within her Hope for whatever lay ahead. She sees herself as blessed and favored –  because she sees herself the way God sees her.

I don’t know what your disappointments of the last year have been. But God does. He holds those hurts in His hands, tenderly and lovingly. He is drawing you into His story even through all those unanswered questions and unspoken fears.

Let’s remember Mary’s song of praise and declare that “His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him.” Let His mercy wash over you – in swelling, overpowering wave after wave – as you step into this season. When you feel like you’re sinking under the weight of it all, I pray that you will experience His hope as He engulfs you in His love.

When you feel like disappointment is all you can unwrap this Christmas, I pray that you will experience His hope as He wraps you in His everlasting embrace.

 

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