Isn’t it crazy to think about Christmas in the middle of winter? What thoughts come up when you think about winter? Cold, stark, barren, no hope, or some other term along those same lines? In fact each season brings, at least in the back of our minds, images related to our lives. Spring we think of newness, and pastels, and birth. Spring brings the first signs of warmth and out of the death from winter new life arises. How about summer? Maybe joy and happiness and bright sunny days, for some even the mention of summer brings a smile across their face. Finally fall we conjure images of death we celebrate the dead on Halloween and even if you were to think of a graveyard what season did your mind place it in?

Winter seems to be an extension of fall it continues the death into a period of permanency. In the fall we might see some life or activity but by winter even this last remnants of life have faded into a blanket of white. Winter seems to be a period of nothingness. But yet Christmas beckons! At the beginning of winter just as the days are finally starting to get a bit longer we see bright colors of red, and blue, and green. We smell cookies baking and colorful gifts wrapped under a tree. TV shows seem to speak of hope and joy and ring out “peace on earth and good will toward all”

What a paradox! Why in the midst of all this gloom and despair is there a holiday that dares to shout against such thoughts? What audacity for an event to subvert the whole symbolism of a season. Yet no matter who you are or where you are from at some point you’ve heard “Merry Christmas” daring to shine a bit of life in an otherwise lifeless season.

I believe this is no mistake. I see this as what happens in ourselves. We go through days and weeks sometimes years in despair we enter a winter in our lives and sometimes think “where is my hope” we BEG for a Christmas to show up in our lives daring to show us that there is color and joy and good will toward men. We are plagued by our own thoughts and reminded of the mistakes we have made. We know that there is so much more we could do or would even like to do but “life” seems to have us trapped. We are desperate to break free of this cold harsh life we have come to know. Sometimes it is just easier to stay where we are instead of trying to break out of this cold and frigid emptiness. Even if we wanted to break free we would find our strength is just not enough to overcome this winter of our lives. Yes we might have a day or two where the blizzard has let up and the roads have cleared and the sun is finally shinning but we know that won’t last and we will be right back in a weather advisory if not a full blown warning in no time.

Oh but friend your Christmas is staring at you from every corner this year! That bleak life you think you have to stay in has been done away with! The hope you have is that YOU ARE FREE!!! That is right all you have to do is get up and walk. You see the reason we feel the way we do is because of sin. Sin keeps us in a circle of hopelessness and depression. However God loved you WAY too much to ever let you stay there. All the effort you have done to try to get yourself out Jesus declares “I’ve already done it, stop working so hard”. The hope, the joy, the peace, the love that this season brings are all tied up in one man. The whole reason for His birth was to free us from the very thing that is plaguing you on a daily basis. His death and resurrection has set you free from all shame and guilt. He has made you righteous and free of ANY blame! You keep telling yourself “I am not good enough” or “I am a failure” or “I just can’t do anything right”. I am telling you that NONE of that is true! Jesus says “You are perfect just the way you are”. Even more surprising is that you do not have to do ANYTHING. He loves you so much without you ever loving Him back.

Jesus provides you a gift in the middle of your winter. His son. So that you can be free from everything that has ever brought you down. He has freed you from that torment. But like any gift all you have to do is accept it. So MERRY CHRISTMAS! God has a gift for you will you open it?