Christmas is upon us. As I write on Christmas Eve, we are preparing for the festivities of tomorrow, and for the Christmas Eve service tonight. Our church rotates between a 7:00 and an 11:00 service, and this year is the 11. So, I’ll drink an extra cup of coffee, round up the kids, and we’ll go prepare our hearts for Christmas. I’ll get the joy of watching my son read scripture in front of the church, and my daughter play special music that she’s worked hard for weeks on. Those sites and sounds remind me both of the preciousness of Christmas as a family, and of the brokenness that makes Christmas so precious to us.
The beautiful Sovereign Grace song named in the title of this post begins with these words,
“O come, all you unfaithful
come, weak and unstable,
come, know you are not alone.”
You are not alone. This is a beautiful promise that is manifested physically in the presence of brothers and sisters in Christ at Christmas, but far more powerfully in the reminder of Emmanuel, God with us. See, I can hide my brokenness from other people. I can mask my weakness and the unstable nature of my ways. But nothing is hidden from God. Nothing stands shaded or ambiguous before Him. Before Him, every heart is revealed, and every motive is laid bare. And we receive the verdict “unfaithful, broken, and unstable.” And yet, not alone.
The chorus of the song gives the reason for our hope, “Christ is born, Christ is born, Christ is born for you.” There is it. The promise and hope of Christmas. The Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, was born. BORN! It doesn’t work that way. God isn’t born. And yet, the hope of the world lies in the Son of God taking on human flesh and existing as “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Remember, He’s the one who knows you. And He took action to redeem you.
The result of this, later in the song is, “His promise is peace, for those who believe.” That’s our hope at Christmas. The unfaithful, the broken, the weak, the unstable…all find peace if they will believe. I love that about Christmas. I am going to meditate on that as I listen to my son read and my daughter play, and as we sing carols tonight. Peace. Not just hoped for, but promised. That is something we need. So don’t just keep it to yourself. Share it with the world.