In Christ We Have Our Hope ~ Isabelle Ingalls

Isabelle has written a wonderful bow for our Christmas series. I hope you enjoy this last installment in “A Little Hope”!

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Kids want Christmas to last forever. I beg to differ.

I’m more than ready for Christmas season to end. Or perhaps, I was never truly ready for it to begin. No, my name isn’t Ebenezer Scrooge, and I promise my heart isn’t two sizes too small. It’s just – hard for me to get into the right spirit.

By December, I’m tired. I’m exhausted. I’ve had giant events to staff and tests to take and several dozen kids all rowdily waiting for Christmas break to get here. So when it arrives, all I want to do is crash and sleep. But I can’t. There are carols to sing and gifts to buy and Christmas movies to watch. And so I’m more than ready to wrap up the busyness and sweep up the wrapping paper.

But this holiday season can lose its color for another reason, because I see plenty of people celebrating Christmas – and only Christmas. Christmas is the easy holiday, full of cute sheep and singing angels, and everyone loves it. Everyone gets presents, everyone laughs together, everyone sings of goodwill and peace, and everyone celebrates Christmas. But then they stop.

The world celebrates Christmas, but nothing else. They don’t want to continue the story. We want Christmas, but not Easter. But perhaps the two are intrinsically intertwined.

Every person who has ever been born has been born for a purpose. Why would we expect any less from this baby in the manger?

I’ve heard it said, Jesus isn’t the reason for the season. Darkness is. Jesus is the answer. Christmas isn’t a celebration of quiet peace, it’s a declaration of heavenly peace invading the chaos, invading the darkness, fighting against the night.

We can’t see Christmas outside of the Gospel. It would be to miss the point. The very first proclamation from an angel declares that they shall name Him “Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.”(Matthew 1:21) That’s the whole purpose of the child sleeping there.

The babe lying in the hay is the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world. (John 1:29) The one the shepherds marvel at is the Good Shepherd, who came to seek and save that which is lost, who lays down His life for the sheep. (John 10:11, Luke 19:10)

You see, Christmas is an answer. An answer to a question that started at the beginning of time. A cry of “How long?”, a cry of “Who will save us?” that has reverberated through the years. The sobs of a lost child crying for his father. And the cries of the Incarnate are the answer. The question may have started at the dawn of time, but this answer will ring throughout eternity.

This newborn infant is the one who makes us new. He who was wrapped in dirty rags is the one who can make us clean. This Savior in a manger is making all sad things untrue.

Noel, noel, Jesus is alive.

Emmanuel, hope is here tonight.

So go and tell the world that death has died,

‘Cause Jesus is alive, yes Jesus is alive!

– Jesus is Alive by Josh Wilson

Christmas has come to a close, yes. And perhaps now we have more of a chance to breathe, more of a chance to rest. But in a sense, we should keep the child-like want of endless Christmas, since the Light of Christmas, the Daystar, will shine on forever.

He came unto His own, but His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. -John 1:11-12

Christmas makes us children of God.

Children of God. That’s what He’ll make us… If we’ll just let Him in.

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Isabelle Ingalls is a 20-year old writer seeking to see the reminder and reflection of Christ’s glorious Gospel in all of life. When not writing, you can find her working with children, singing and dancing around the house, and discussing theology with friends over hot chocolate. A writer for both The Rebelution and Top Christian Books, she also shares on singleness, adoption, Narnia, thunderstorms, stories, and any other adventures in Christian Living on her blog at Seeing Everything Else.