It’s the day after Christmas. As we put together to shut the chapter on this Christmas season, just a few issues are price remembering. Christmas didn’t start in consolation, celebration, or certainty. It started in obscurity, inconvenience, and unmet expectations. The long-awaited Messiah entered the world not in a palace however in a steady, not surrounded by dignitaries however by animals (Luke 2:7), not welcomed with ease however born amid rejection. There was no room within the inn, but heaven made room on earth. That is the place true worship begins, not when circumstances are ultimate, however when God chooses to work by what feels small, painful, or missed. It’s worship born at the hours of darkness. The beginning of Christ reminds us that God’s biggest work usually unfolds in locations the world deems unworthy.
Mary’s response to this second was not bitterness or worry, however give up. She didn’t understand how the story would unfold, but she trusted the God who had spoken. Joseph walked a street marked by uncertainty, but he obeyed. Their worship was not expressed by songs alone, however by devoted obedience when life didn’t make sense. Christmas teaches us that true worship is usually quiet, hidden, and dear. It’s praising God in the midst of inconvenience, trusting Him when the long run feels fragile, and surrendering plans to a function higher than our personal.
Even the angels who introduced Christ’s beginning did so to shepherds, males accustomed to lengthy nights, loneliness, and watchfulness. God revealed His glory first to those that knew find out how to wait at the hours of darkness. Their response was worship: they went, they noticed, and so they glorified God. Christmas worship is born when religion responds to God’s initiative, even when life is bizarre or weary. The message of the incarnation is obvious: God attracts close to not after the wrestle ends, however within the midst of it. Emmanuel means God with us, not God after us, not God as soon as all the things is resolved.
The manger factors us ahead to the cross, the place worship, as soon as once more, would rise from struggling. The kid wrapped in swaddling garments would someday be wrapped in burial linen, and but by each moments, God’s redemptive plan was unfolding. Christmas invitations believers to worship not as a result of life is simple, however as a result of God is current. It reminds us that not solely is worship born at the hours of darkness, however hope usually arrives quietly, love enters humbly, and glory is revealed in give up. In each season, joyful or painful, Christmas declares this enduring reality: God is with us, and that alone is cause sufficient to worship. Reward the Lord!
