Comfort and Joy

"Comfort, give comfort to my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her service is at an end, her guilt is expiated; for she has indeed received from the hand of the Lord double for all her sins. A voice cries out: In the desert prepare the way for the way of the Lord! Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God! Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low; the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country a broad valley. Go up on to a high mountain, Zion, herald of glad tidings; cry out at the top of your voice, Jerusalem, herald of good news! . . . . Here is your God! . . . Like a shepherd he feeds his flock; in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care." -- [ IS 40:1-5, 9-11.].


How I love all the Christmas Carols! But one of my most favorites is "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen".

The lyrics go, "God rest Ye Merry, gentlemen, let nothing you dismay, Remember Christ Our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power, when we were gone astray; O tidings of comfort and joy, comfort and joy. O tidings of comfort and joy!."

It is not a modern theological concept to think of comfort on Christmas. If we think of comfort at all these days, it is in the earthly trappings of Christmas:

Oh, the hot cocoa!
The cookies!
The Christmas ham!
The warm Yule fire!
The roasted chestnuts!
The glittering ornaments!
The cashmere sweaters and sofa shawls!
The champagne and mulled wine!
The gourmet chocolates!

But this reading from Isaiah and from this Christmas Carol, speak of comfort from God. Christmas is supposed to be the most lavish, comfortable and joyous day in the Christian calendar. How much more comfort could we ask for?

I am beginning to see that all the creature comforts in the world will warm my heart only temporarily.   Long after all the goodies are gone, the decorations are stored away in the dusty attic again, and I face Christmas bills that I dread to pay -- will my heart be empty again?

In Exodus 3, Moses meets God for the first time. Moses is so afraid that he hides his face. God tells him, " I have observed the misery of my people [who are slaves] in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land, to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey."

God leads Moses and his people out of a land of misery and bondage, to a land where "the rugged land shall be made a plain." God fills in the valleys and lays low the mountains for us.

In Jeremiah 30: 22, God tells His people: "So you will be my people and I will be your God."

God loves us as our Father. He wants us to lay our troubles at His feet. He wants us to cry out to him for comfort, but for far more than food and water and shelter. He wants us to really lean on Him.

He wants us to lift up our children to Him, and ask that they lead purposeful and loving lives. He wants us to ask Him for strength, when we feel that we cannot go on. He wants us to plead for Peace in our world.

It is such a tender image, that God is "like a shepherd [who] feeds his flock; in His arms he gathers the lambs. . . leading the ewes with care."

God sends us His Son, as an extravagant gift of Love for us! Jesus tells us, "I will never leave you an orphan". - John 14: 18.

We are hard-wired, as humans, to be unable to resist the awe and magic and joy of a baby. Go out into the world: go to a school, to a market, to a doctor's office and chance upon a tiny baby. I will wager that you will stop in your tracks. I will bet that you will become motionless, absolutely still, holding your breath! Perhaps you will even cry out with Joy!

God is offering us an irresistible, heart-stoppping, mystical, eternal Gift.     His Son.

Will we become so enamored of the worldly trappings of Christmas, that we ignore the true Gift in our midst?

[Related Postings: "Christmas Joy!",  December 23, 2011.]

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