+JMJ
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
I skipped writing a post last week because of all the craziness involved with getting ready for Christmas Day. I always get stuck in the sense of urgency that seems to permeate this season of the year.
So, this post will also be short and sweet.
I sat down to pray my Thursday Holy Hour and I was overwhelmed by this urgency and angst. It’s hard to describe… The only other time I have ever felt this is on those days when I am just completely miserable and I cannot figure out what I need. Do I need to eat? Do I need a nap? Do I need to be alone? Do I need a hug?
It is a searching feeling, but one that doesn’t seem to have an answer. It is an overwhelming desperation, but being unable to figure it out. It is an inner dissatisfaction that feels perpetual. Those childlike meltdown days.
Desperation
I think this is what the world felt like before the birth of Jesus. A world groaning in the misery of death created by sin. A world made sorrowful, miserable, and downcast by the offenses committed against the Lord, God.
I can feel my soul and the souls of the whole world yearning for comfort, joy, and fulfilling satisfaction.
It is kind of how all of 2020 felt. Just anguish, misery, agony, distress, heartbreak, woe…
I, and the world, are in desperate need of a Comforter, and that comfort arrives in the birth of our Savior.
Greatest Love
As I imagine gazing upon the precious face of the newborn Jesus, I can see how unworthy I am. He is the purest, the Most Holy, the most innocent person to ever walk the earth. This is what the Lord wants me to see here.
His Holy Innocence.
It hits me that this most innocent babe would go on to carry the filth of my sins on His shoulders. I have witnessed Him treated as the wicked should be in the crowning with thorns, made to take the beating of my offenses, made to bear the foulness of my transgressions in the walk to Calvary, and die an agonizing death upon the cross. It is impossible to imagine that the newborn Jesus would grow up and suffer these most horrible tortures for my sake. It is hard to picture that the least deserving of such tortures would be the one to go through them.
But He will and He will with the greatest love, for it is through His birth that our salvation was born.
The incomprehensible mysteries of an innocent baby growing up and suffering unutterable agonies for someone so ungrateful and cold-hearted as me is an incredible act of the purest love. It is His birth that is comfort and compassion to the whole world. It is the bringer of joy and vanquisher of sorrow. As that sweet face looks up at me, I can see that His birth alleviates the pains of sin. His birth is the comfort and compassion that my soul yearns for.
So, my dear Friends, remain in silence before the infant Jesus. Remain in admiration, hopeful in the fruits that, upon adulthood, He would merit for our sake.
Take one last glance at the innocent babe, a meek lamb, pure and Holy, before He grows and walks the path to complete suffering. The quiet walk to His slaughter on the cross.
Thrive in Jesus, my Friends!
How do you plan to spend more time with Jesus in the New Year?