Blog
Disappointment to Joy
Posted by Shaylee Honey on December 27, 2010 at 8:14 am
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
Hard to believe those words from Isaiah were written about Jesus.
Knowing what you and I know about the Prince of Peace, how could anyone say that there is nothing appealing about him? And who in their right mind could possibly despise and reject him? Yet, as we observe history, we know that's exactly what happened and is happening. In the whole scheme of history, taking into account the entire population of planet Earth throughout time, Jesus has indeed largely been ignored, at best; despised and rejected, at worst.
One would be wrong to think that the Christmas story is only about how a little baby and its parents were turned away from a warm and cozy place to stay and forced to take up lodging among animals. The Christmas story isn't about rejection. Au contraire! The Christmas story is about babies and innocence and hope and joy and peace!
It's about hundreds of years of promise that God will do something spectacular for all mankind. It's about God coming to earth as a baby to save us all. It's about angels and heavenly hosts singing because baby HOPE has arrived. It's ultimately about Jesus' infatuation with babies and children and God's call to every one of us to become like a little child.
And while there is an element of rejection in the whole business of adoption, it's really less about that. Adoption is more about hope and sacrifice and courage and joy and fulfillment. It's about birth mothers--themselves often the victims of rejection and abuse--who muster the courage to make an eternal plan for their babies by placing them in Christian forever families. It's about the joy that babies bring to couples who thought they would never experience the blessings of children. It's about adopted children who, as adults, express deep gratitude for having been reared by loving, believing parents.
The stories of Christmas and Christian Homes have common themes...disappointment turned to joy. Hopelessness transformed into hope.
Christmas is about a baby. Not a king in a palace. Not armies. Not politics. Not strength or power or smarts or wealth. It's about a vulnerable, defenseless baby. A baby! For goodness sakes...a BABY! A baby rejected, now a Savior, alive, and the author of "Peace on Earth to all on whom his favor rests."
Happy Holidays from all of us at Christian Homes & Family Services.
