Psalm 42:5, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance.”
I love winter! I hate winter! And that “love-hate” relationship is an annual experience since, for some reason, best known to God, I have lived most of my life in the bleakness of northern winters. I hate winters because they are too long. Because it gets dark early. And I can do without winter when the snow turns into slush and the temperature is damply neither cold nor hot. Yet there are some things I love about winter. I like the beautiful variety it brings to the changing seasons. I like curling up on the couch with a good book, a crackling fire, and a snowfall proving its presence as it softly drifts past the streetlight. I love winter because it makes spring so much more wonderful. But most of all I love winter for Christmas. When I was a child, Christmas was wonderful because of the toys and games. In my latter years, I have come to love Christmas because it celebrates the reality that, in the bleak and chilly darkness of my world, God broke through to give me hope in the place of despair, peace in the midst of conflict, and forgiveness in the place of guilt and judgment. If there were no Christmas, winter would be a horrible place in which to be stuck. That must have been what C. S. Lewis had in mind. In The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the children go through the wardrobe into the land of winter. Upon arrival, they are told by the inhabitants of this cold, dark land that for them it is always winter and never Christmas. Thankfully, for us life is no longer like that. No matter how dark, cold, and bleak life may become, the Christ of Christmas takes us through with His reassuring promises, the light of His Word, and the comforting warmth of His presence. Best of all, He assures us that an eternal spring will someday be ours! This Christmas give thanks that in the winter of your life Christmas is coming.
Today’s devotion is adapted from Strength for the Journey: Day By Day With Jesus written byJoseph M. Stowell and published by Moody Publishers.
