I have been thinking a lot this Christmas season about rest. We, as a society, need rest. People are tired. Not in the sense of needing a good night's sleep, but in the sense of our souls - our souls are tired, bone-tired. Can you relate? Do you feel...
Weariness from this broken, dark, hurting world
Exhaustion from trying to produce, hanging on by a thread to try and keep up
Emotionally empty from the anxiety about all that we cannot control in our lives
Fretting over that same lie that we keep falling for: "You are what you produce."
Debilitated from trying and failing to meet everyone else's expectations
Discouraged from the wrongs that we long for the Lord to make right
Drained from that same, unanswered, long-offered prayer
We're a tired world. We're a weary world. We're a human world.
We are limited as mortals. We need enough water, food, and sleep to be able to function. (Sara Hagerty's book on this: The Gift of Limitations will bless you!) Link 👇🏼
The world tells you you are a fighter! You can do anything! But the truth is, you can't do anything. You have limitations.
Inhale with me Matthew 11:28, Jesus' words,
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest."
The composition of Christmas is not every person getting an exciting gift. Nor is it the chic of your wrapping. It's not the quality or tenderness of your meat at Christmas dinner.
We know this. We remind ourselves of this, even. But are we living it this Christmas season? Is it saturating our souls? Are our spouses and kids noticing it? Are we sitting in the quiet shadows of the twinkling lights and absorbing the hope of the truth of Christ this Christmas? Are we marinating in the implications of what his coming to Earth means for us today?
If not, be encouraged by grace, friend.
Christmas is swaddled in G R A C E.
It doesn't matter how wretched you have been, or how disgusting your choices, or how evil your intent. Christmas came for you. You don't have to be holy to have it. You just have to be needy for it. GRACE.
Likewise, it also doesn't matter who "Christian" you've acted. It doesn't matter all the good deeds you've done, all the donations you've made to worthy charities, it doesn't matter the cheer you've brought. Jesus doesn't need your moralism, he just wants your heart. GRACE.
The Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6) he came for us!
It is all grace. This whole story of salvation, it's grace. This entire unbelievably glorious truth that the King of Heaven came to Earth - was born in a nasty stable - laid in a dried-up saliva-crusted livestock feeding trough - born to poor, teenage parents from Nazareth (the absolute wrong side of the tracks) - his birth first announced to low-class Shepherds - it is all grace.
"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out, true from start to finish."
John 1:14 (The Message)
This is the King who lived as a servant, who preached (and lived) a message that in dying to self we really become free. This King had a special eye for the lonely, the sick, the outcast, and the rejects. This King had a longing for people to see the truth of who he was because he is for people's good. This King went to the cross and died a brutal physical death while dying inside emotionally ten-fold as His Father rejected Him.
This is the King we remember this Christmas.
This is the King who fulfilled the Law we couldn't obey and died the punishment we were destined for. This is the King who demanded we do NOTHING to receive his love.
He says this to us: "Come. I've handled it all. Just come.
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."
John 10:11
How stunning. It's too good to be true.
The old hymn, "Grace Greater Than All Our Sin", resonates in my racing heart as I saturate in this grace...
Marvelous grace of our loving Lord
Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt
Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Dark is the stain that we cannot hide
What can avail to wash it away?
Look, there is flowing a crimson tide
Whiter than snow you may be today
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace, grace, God's grace
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace
Freely bestowed on all who believe
All who are longing to see His face
Will you this moment His grace receive?
Grace, grace, God's grace (marvelous grace, infinite grace)
Grace that will pardon and cleanse within
Grace, grace, God's grace (marvelous grace, infinite grace)
Grace that is greater than all our sin
Grace, it's 100% undeserved. That's its essence. We didn't deserve the Hound of Heaven to come on a hot-pursuit of redemption for us after we botched it all. We didn't deserve his death in our place. We don't deserve the rest he offers to our souls through this grace. He spent the first hours of his earthly life in the wooden cradle of the manger and he spent his dying breath on the wooden cross of Calvary. From lowly to lowly - this is the nature of our King.
This grace is ours now. Come, needy one. Immanuel came so you can come.
This Christmas stop climbing, stop striving. Just come.
As we engage with the gifts, the twinkling trees, the cookie-decorating messes, the snarky comment from the extended family member, and the forgotten items on the grocery lists --may the grace and rest of our Savior, who saw and cared and came, bring each of our souls a rest and peace that rejuvenates and restores those deep places of fatigue.
"She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matthew 1:21
My prayer for myself and you this Christmas is this:
That we will smile at Him, smiling at us, and receive this gift of grace.
Merry Christmas! Grace and rest to you, dear friend.
Audio Encouragement of "Grace That is Greater Than All My Sin"
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