Note from Joanna: This is our last guest post for 2013! My friend and writing assistant Angela Howard shares from an unlikely Christmas passage. If you are experiencing sorrow or just need a reminder of the hope we have in Christ, keep reading–this post is for you!
This week I began reading through the book of Revelation. It might seem like a strange book for this Christmas season, but as I jumped into the first chapter I realized that it might be more appropriate than I had thought. During advent, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we are in a season of waiting for the day we celebrate Christ’s birth.
Waiting in hopeful expectation.
Looking forward to celebrating God’s faithfulness in the gift of His Son.
As followers of Christ, we have hope because we know our Lord and Savior:
“I am the Alpha and Omega—the beginning and the end,” says the Lord God, “I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come—the Almighty One.” (Revelation 1:8 NLT)
I find so much comfort in these words. Jesus existed before creation and will live for all eternity. He is not simply a figure of history, a good man, or a prophet. He is God.
He was
He is
He is to come
In all our trials, suffering and pain we can look forward in joyful hope for a Savior who will come again; a Savior who knows our sorrow.
“He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief…” (Isaiah 53:3 NLT)
Have you ever been so grief stricken that you really have no words for your pain? I have. In the middle of my deepest pain, I remember two things distinctly:
The comfort of the Holy Spirit—a deep abiding peace.
The physical comfort of my friend.
My friend didn’t tell me it was going to be okay or get angry for me. In fact, she didn’t say much at all. She held me when I cried, she made sure I ate and drank. She lay next to me as I fell asleep. All these years later, I see that she was able to comfort me because she was a woman of sorrows; she knew deep pain, and she knew what I needed.
Just as my friend knew, Christ knows—and so much more deeply. He is a man of sorrows who will comfort you in your deepest pain, if you will just reach out to Him. In your waiting this Christmas season, wait on the one who was and is and is to come.
Are you in a time of sorrow? How are you finding comfort in Christ?
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