Sorrow and the Season

Advent is an ironic time of year: we look forward to something that happened two millennia ago!  But all the Christmas joy about us, can for some be quite discouraging if not downright painful, and makes this time of year very difficult.  We idealize Christmas and often forget the true meaning and real implications; I do not speak of the materialism drowning out the nativity story, but that there is sorrow in Christmas as there is in every human endeavor.  But the sorrow need not be triumphant for the story ends in joy!  We all know the idealized and beloved story of a baby in a stable with a plethora of animal friends, the joyous angels proclaiming peace on earth, and the strange wise men of the east and their wondrous gifts.  But do we remember a mere girl found pregnant in a time where such a condition out of wedlock might well mean death?  Or that she was forced on a long journey at such a delicate time and hardly had a penny to her name?  Or the vile King who would slay all the boy children in the village to destroy this percieved threat?  Could we have the stable without the cross?  Yet even the darkest day in history ended with Joy in the morning.  Every story, at least in this fallen mortal sphere, has its sorrow, its tragedy, and its grief.  But no matter our struggles nor our pains, there is One who has known them, has borne them Himself, and He Himself has promised Joy in the Morning.

Job wondered at this riddle of sorrow thousands of years before the Beloved Story.  He never got an answer, only an assurance that there was One who was competant to shepherd the world and all its people through the baffling maze of Time.  He lost his fortune, his family, and his health.  His friends accused him of some hidden sin that had no doubt caused this tragic judgement he was now enduring.  But Job maintained his innocence and demanded an answer of his Maker.  He was given an interview but no true answer, but in the magnificscence and power of God he had found peace.  He did not understand.  We do not understand.  Can any mortal truly comprehend this tragic story called life?  But the Author knows and we too can find peace in that.

Sorrow?  What can God know of mortal suffering?  Why would a good God allow such?  Job's riddle remains to this day, our answer is at best a paradox.  But God does understand our sorrow and our grief.  That baby in the manger was prophesied long before His birth to know these thing.  As the Prophet Isaiah longago foretold:

  He was despised and rejected by men;
  a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
 and as one from whom men hide their faces
  he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
  Surely he has borne our griefs
  and carried our sorrows;
 yet we esteemed him stricken,
  smitten by God, and afflicted.
 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
  he was crushed for our iniquities;
 upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
  and with his wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:3-5 ESV)

A man of sorrows, aquainted with grief?  Crushed for our iniguities and pierced for our transgressions?  By his wounds we are healed and his chastisement brought our peace?  God has not only known sorrow, He has suffered it on our behalf!  These wondrous words are immortalized in Handel's Messiah and will long haunt your heart and soul should you be so fortunate to hear them thus.

A little child in a manger brings joy and wonder to our hearts, but do not forget the full story.  Enjoy the lights, the hot chocolate, your family and friends, the gifts, and the joy of this Christmas, but do not despair if your heart aches with loneliness, you shiver with cold and hunger, or you dwell in the depths of grief and sorrow for there is One who has 'borne our griefs and carried our sorrows' and will neither abandon nor forsake us.  Remember the sorrow and the joy, for the former is temporary and the latter forever.  We shall mourn in this mortal night, but joy comes in the morning!

The great Advent hymn, 'O Come, O come, Emmanuel' of this well reminds us:

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free
Thine own from Satan’s tyranny;
From depths of hell Thy people save,
And give them victory over the grave.

O come, Thou Day-spring, come and cheer
Our spirits by Thine advent here;
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,
And open wide our heavenly home;Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.