Hurting People still Seek Him
The Pathway to Christmas: Part 3
The thirty-something grocery store cashier responded quickly to my, "How is your day going?" with, "This is the best day of the week. I get to go to church tonight."
Suddenly my polite inquiry turned in to a research moment. This man had waited on me for years and had never expressed more than a few obligatory words as he rang up my purchases. I couldn't help asking, "Why are you so excited about going to church?"
He told me that a few months before he and his wife were struggling, they needed hope. They discovered a church where the music was high energy, they didn't have to get better before attending, and people they didn't know invited them to their homes. He said the message about Jesus gave him hope. And life is easier with hope.
Hurting people still seek Jesus.
When the Light Disappears
The wise men who followed the star to the manger were astrologers who saw something different in the sky. They weren't religious leaders, yet in the mundane they saw the sign that the King was coming and they had hope. Apparently the star disappeared for a period because once they got to Jerusalem, they asked around town, “where is the one who has been born king of the Jews?
(Matthew 2:1-2).
We have seen his star in the east and have come to worship him.”
The Wise Men refused to believe the star was gone, simply because they could not see it. Such thinking encourages me, even in this Christmas season, when melancholy washes over me and I long for past Christmas joy. Where is that Light that overcomes the darkness when a blue mood wraps itself around me like a wet woolen blanket?
Why did Jesus call Himself the bright Morning Star?
In Revelation 22:16, Jesus calls Himself the bright Morning Star. This is significant, especially for those of us who struggle to trust that the Light is still burning when all we can see are dark clouds. The Morning Star, which is actually the planet Venus appears before sunrise in the western sky, nine months out of the year.
It is like an alarm clock for the birds to begin singing, a new day is dawning.
Something better is coming.
Even when it cannot be seen in the early morning, it is still there.
And in fact, during one of the periods when it cannot be seen in the early morning, it is the Evening Star, a point of reference for mariners in the middle of the dark night. It is their frame of reference.
Jesus calls Himself the Morning Star, to remind us that He is the One whose brightness breaks through the darkness of midnight, with just a glimmer, and a promise of hope and help and a new day. Just as we can depend on the sun rising every day and that spring will follow winter, we can trust that the Light of Jesus is still burning even when the darkness covers our souls.
And even when it feels as though He is not there, we can trust that He hasn’t moved.
The midnight darkness may have taken over, but His light will break through that darkness as the Evening Star.
He is the Evening Star, in the midnights of life, in the darkness.
And in the end of life, He is the bright Morning Star who leads us into heaven.
Priceless Treasures
When we choose to follow the Bright Morning Star, God sometimes gives us priceless treasures that can only be attributed to listening to His voice, even when it’s hard.
Our niece, Elizabeth, tells a story that demonstrates following the star, even to the edge of Heaven:
My grandmother had a serious heart condition for thirteen years and often could not leave her bed.
During her last hospitalization, at God’s prompting, I asked to spend the night with Grandmother during that hospital stay
She had survived numerous medical crises, but this one was different and I desperately wanted to be with her – both to help her through the night as well as for my own sake.
Since I was only sixteen, my parents reluctantly gave me permission.
That night was very difficult and Grandmother asked me to read form Psalm 116.
As I read, she became agitated and kept saying, “That’s not it. That’s not it.”
When I got to verse six she finally relaxed and said, “Yes, that’s it.” She repeated the verse over and over again.
“Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you.”
Grandmother entered heaven the next day. Later Grandfather found two of her bibles opened to that passage.
In the darkness, that is where we can see the star shining brightly but we must open our eyes, even if just to squint at the light. We need to be on full alert for the treasure, like the wise men. We have to respond to the call of that Bright Morning Star.
Wendy Alsup, an author and blogger I follow shared in a post of how she had to choose to look for treasures, to be intentional about finding reasons for gratitude during an especially painful Christmas.
She said that every night she bundled up her two little boys and they drove around the city looking at the pretty Christmas lights.
Did that action change her circumstances?
Of course not, but she made an intentional choice, not to stay in the darkness, but to find ways to rejoice in the Bright Morning Star that is Jesus.
I think she most likely did it more for the sake of her sons than for herself.
Often, that's why we make certain choices, for the good of those around us.
Like the wise men, we have to make hard choices to follow the Star of Jesus, even when, and perhaps especially when it is the most difficult.
If you're struggling to embrace Christmas because of loss, I encourage you to do as the Wise Men did. Follow the Star to the Manger. Choose to symbolically bundle up your heart and intentionally look for the Light of Christmas. Ask Jesus to light the way for you to be a safe place for another broken person, to lean into the pain of another friend fighting depression or simply spend some quiet time with Jesus, asking Him to open your eyes and heart to His presence, His light.
The grocery cashier reminded me that Jesus doesn't want us to air brush our lives before we come to Him, He invites us to come just as we are.
Those hurting places can be the bridge to His healing and unconditional love.
Without the struggles this family experienced, they would not have found the hope of Jesus. Follow the star. Follow the star to the manger, to the real Star of Christmas.
In His grip,
Sharon