As the new year begins and you complete the process of boxing up Christmas ornaments, lights, holiday cards, gifts, etc., consider not putting away one Christmas item: ‘The Christmas Message’.
It is a choice, which only you can make. To package away your Christmas items with the ‘Christmas Message’ or carry that message in your heart. Displaying it in your daily actions, as part of your worldview, throughout this New Year.
This writer is persuaded, the eternal Christmas Message of ‘Living Hope’, as seen in the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ, does not fit in a box. Because the message of ‘Living Hope’ cannot be destroyed, is not seen by human eyes, and does not change based on politics or social/cultural suggestions of our time.
The unique Christmas Message of ‘Living Hope’ (eternal life through Christ Jesus) transcends all ethnic barriers and all language challenges; while confronting poverty, sadness, loneliness, fear, etc. whenever it is shared. Indeed, it was not given to us to be confined to a specific calendar date or bound to a specific season of the year or even selected for only one people group. The Christian Message of Living Hope is for all humanity…. for all time.
In Pelagius’s (4th century) commentary on Paul’s letter to the Romans (New Testament) he writes: “…Christians have no hope in what can be seen, for we have been promised not what is present but what is to come in the future…”.
Jesus Christ, through His miraculous birth by the Virgin Mary, and His life, death, and resurrection, demonstrates God the Father has kept His Promise to humanity, and His Son Jesus Christ is our ‘Living Hope.’ He (Jesus) is the Christmas Message we can choose to carry and apply throughout the New Year.
Cyril of Alexandria (5th century) in his study of the letter to the Romans states, “…our hope is not yet present…. but (our hope) is a future certainty…”.
Theodoret of Cyr (5th century) writes, Christians are not to believe in the hope of nature (the flesh) but rather believe “…in the hope of the promise of God…”.
If you choose to carry this Promise of God, this ‘Living Hope’ in your heart and in your mind, how would your life change in the coming year? How would your relationship with others change?
In times of great stress or need each of us has (in the natural (in the flesh)) desired and or sought after hope to reduce our stress or meet some unspoken need. The Christmas Message of God’s Promise is different. It provides us a ‘Living Hope’ which is founded not upon what we think we need….but rather upon what God desires for us individually.
As you begin this New Year, consider holding on to God’s Christmas Message of Hope, which is permanent, perfect, and life-changing. Don’t pack it away with your Christmas ornaments.
Allow the message of Christmas, the message of ‘Living Hope’, to be your refuge in times of stress, shelter in times of confusion, and rock of support when all else fails.
In this coming 2025, “…In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths…” (Proverbs 3:6, NKJ)
Soli Deo Gloria, (To God Alone be the Glory), LEO BT/NATEODA Chaplain B
