Holidays

Maybe

by Lori Othouse 
12/13/18
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“It’s the most wonderful time of the year!”

Or, is it?

For many (hopefully, most) of us, it is. We can look forward to shopping, decorating, seeing family and friends, eating delicious food, opening gifts, and making wonderful memories. And that’s how it should be. But, maybe it isn’t that way for you.

Maybe there’s tension in your home, anger and bitterness that always raises its ugly head, even when it should be a happy time. Shouting, name-calling, complaining and disagreements that even the loudest Christmas carols can’t cover up. You’ve tip-toed on so many eggshells that you don’t know how to walk any other way. You’re so sick and tired of the stress, but don’t know how to make it stop.

Maybe you’re dealing with sickness this year. A diagnosis that has left you shocked and numb. Or maybe an ongoing pain or disability that never seems to get better. Doctors, treatments and medication are the norm. You just want to enjoy things and not be hurting or struggling or sick, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

Maybe financial issues are overwhelming you today. It’s hard enough to just pay the regular bills, and Christmas is a painful reminder of all that you don’t have and can’t do. You may owe so much that you’re one paycheck away from disaster. You want to give so much and feel like you let down and disappoint those that you love the most, especially your children.

Maybe you’re lonely this year. It may be the passing of a loved one or distance between you and your family members, physical or emotional. Maybe someone you love left, turned their back, or treats you in a way that makes you feel more alone than if you actually were. Maybe someone who should love you, doesn’t. Or you have regrets of someone you walked away from and it seems too late to ever have that relationship again.

Maybe none of these are you. And, if not, thank God right now for the tremendously blessed life that you have. But, if you are in any or all of these situations, I’d like to offer more maybes:

Maybe there’s hope.

Maybe there’s more happening than what you see.

Maybe there’s an amazing story being written with your life and your happy ending is just a few pages away.

Maybe there’s more than maybe. Maybe there’s definitely.

When the holidays seem to emphasize the pain, longing, illness or dysfunction you have to deal with, there are promises you can count on that don’t change like diagnoses, emotions or paychecks –

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me…” Psalm 138:8

“I have loved you with an everlasting love...” Jeremiah 31:3

"For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

"For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved." John 3:16-17

That’s what Christmas is. God’s unimaginable love, sent down from heaven to us, to be like us, walk with us, feel like us, be hurt and rejected by us, and then die for us. He can say all that He says because He WAS us. He knows. But unlike anyone else in history, He can fulfill all that He says because He IS God.

He doesn’t ask that we understand. He only asks that we believe.

"...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." Romans 10:9-10

I can’t tell you how things will work out for you. This free-will, fallen place that we live in can beat us up as we walk through it. We aren’t promised an easy life in this world. But you have so much more to live for than this world. And that’s where our hope lies. Whatever we suffer in this life will be more than made up to us when we step over into eternity.

Maybe things won’t work out like you hope, or maybe they will. Maybe life will get easier, or maybe it won’t. Whatever your maybes, don’t forget your definitelies. Promises made by the One who loves you enough to make them and is powerful enough to keep them.

Maybe this is a word you needed to hear.

Maybe, this Christmas, you can believe it.