I love Christmas! Everything about it. Even though, for me, the joy-filled December days of childhood when we were busily making gifts at school, baking cookies at home, shopping at Woolworths for sibling’s gifts, and learning songs for Christmas programs are long ago gone. 

Now I’m a grandma. Over the years my own children grew to adulthood and began their own lives. Christmas joy has changed its flavor. Our memory-making Christmases have become seasons with more time for reflecting on Christmas memories. From year to year we join the club of empty nesters who celebrate Christmas with whichever of our kids and grandkids are available, whenever they’re available! We accept that quieter Christmases are part of the circle of life! 

This morning, though, I’m thinking about a relative who said that this Christmas season is very hard for her, and she’s praying for God to “snap her out of it”. For some time now she has been part of a group she’d rather not identify with. What do I mean?

There are years, or even periods of years, when people whose lives have been jarred by tragic circumstances have found themselves in a realm that is outside of most people’s typical life-circles:  There’s a husband whose wife has lost her battle with cancer, a mother who has lost her child to drug overdose, a daughter who watches her elderly mother daily slip further away in her demented state. There’s a wife who visits her husband whose stroke left him unable to speak, let alone care for himself, though his eyes tell her he still loves her and treasures her company. For so many like these, the Christmas spirit seems to be on an extended Winter break. 

As I pondered my dear one’s situation I thought, “Surely my words can carry love, but what comfort can they bring?” I think only God can deliver heart-healing comfort to someone whose soul is just plain weary from struggling for its next breath. The apostle Paul knew that. He actually called our heavenly Father the “God of all comfort”. 

“Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort…” 2 Corinthians 1:3

There is one source of true comfort, and that’s God. I don’t think Paul was implying that God would cover over the heart-ache with a lifeless replica of joy. I think Paul meant that God would come into our troubled soul, and be Emmanuel (God with us). He will come and be that closer-than-a-brother friend who will simply hold our hand while we shed our tears. He will tenderly hold us close to His chest as we release sigh after sigh. His comfort will assure our souls that we aren’t carrying our heavy burden by ourselves, but that He is holding our weary hearts in His own loving hands. His comfort will whisper “I’m on this journey with you, and I’m not going away.” Comfort that can promise the hope that life’s joy will be found again can only come from God. 

That reminds me of what my pastor brought to church yesterday morning to illustrate his sermon. He brought a slice of a tree stump that had sprouted new life! He read from Isaiah 11:1. “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.”

Referring to King David’s descendants, God said that what appeared to be the dead stump of a royal family tree would one day sprout a King for His people! 

I think that when Emmanuel comes to comfort us in our brokenness, He comforts us in the cold, seemingly lifeless, “stumpiness” of our soul. He offers His faithful, loving understanding in the midst of sadness. He quietly whispers of His love as He plants seeds of hope in the winters of our hearts. He plants seeds of joy into grieving souls. He plants life-seeds. He gently creates a path to joy in those still lost in sorrow. And all the while, those who know Him continue to trust, continue to worship, continue to dialogue with our Counselor, our Prince of Peace. We trust and believe in the hope He has promised. As we do, though we can’t see it, down inside our “stump” hope is growing roots. 

Finally the day comes when joy is rediscovered. At first it may just be a sprout. But over time it grows while being nurtured by the same Caregiver who planted it. Perhaps we still carry on in what has come to be our “new-normal” lives, or sometimes our circumstances are changed by God’s miraculous touch. Either way, yes, either way, eventually hope and joy grow from a sprout to a full-fledged branch. When that happens, we can be used by God to deliver His comfort to others who are in the midst of their own devastation.

Why do I think that? Because Paul continued to write: “…the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles so that we may be able to comfort those experiencing any trouble with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” – 2 Corinthians 1:3b-4 

Heavenly Father, I’m sure Your heart ached for what would become a broken world even before You created it. But because You are the God of hope, You knew even then that hope would one day again be found! You sent Jesus, and hope was born! You’ve given us Jesus, and hope can be found! And just as Isaiah called Jesus a sprout or branch growing from a stump, You have promised hope and joy will indeed come, personally delivered to us by the God of all comfort! Jesus, what a precious, wonderful Savior You are! Let my words of love be used by You to plant seeds of hope into the hearts of those I love, and let them soon sprout with joy! Thank You again for Your most precious gift, Jesus!