Hello, everyone! Elisabeth Edmonds is sharing devotional thoughts with us right before Christmas Day! She’s new to the blog, so be sure to head over to the contributors page to learn more about her.
it’s almost Christmas, and a lot of kids all over are probably already shaking their gifts to try to figure out what’s inside. hot chocolate, Christmas music, wrapping paper, and decorated trees help characterize the season, and for many, this is the best time of the year.
as a kid, Christmas was so exciting, and Christmas cookies were pretty exciting too 
I loved singing the songs and picking out trees, reading the Christmas story and looking at lights. but then, when the realities and heaviness of life hit hard, I didn’t see things the same. Christmas was a time I wanted to be over. Christmas music was something to be turned off. and lights on the tree were better unplugged.
but if you think about the old song lyrics above, joy isn’t something you have because the decorations turned out just right, because everything is just as it was when you were a kid, because every circumstance in your life automatically makes you feel happy. there is joy because the Lord is come.
the Lord who left perfect Heaven to live on entirely imperfect earth. the Lord Who lay in the muck of the manger for you and for me. the Lord Who died on a wooden cross, pierced by thorns and nails so the world could be set free.
and focusing on that – the baby in the manger Who became my Savior, Who forgave me, loves me, and brought hope, peace, and true joy to the world – that is why there can always be joy at Christmas.
that doesn’t mean that Christmas will never be hard. but in the dark, He’s still with us. He is Emmanuel.
Christmas may not look how you would want it to, and He knows that. Christmas may not be like you remember, but He hasn’t changed. Christmas may be spent without one you love and the grief of loss may be so heavy, joy seems like an impossible attempt, and He loves you and He cares.
He is with us, He deeply loves us, and He was born so He could die to save us. And when we fix our eyes on Him at Christmas and focus on what He has done, there is a reason for joy. there is a reason to have hope. there is a reason to see the many blessings He has given. and it is because of Him I have joy this Christmas. and it is because of Him I can choose to have joy every day for the rest of my life.
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