By: Alan Bradley, Lead Pastor Faith Commmunity
One of my favorite things about this season is the calm.
Many people like the trees, the lights, the presents, the parades...but I love the calm.
Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of Christ and one thing you can be sure of tomorrow, everything just settles down. Cars aren’t on the roads much, most of the stores are closed, it just feels calm.
Rewind back to when Mary found out she was going to give birth to the Savior. Her first response wasn’t calm.
After the angel told her the Holy Spirit was going to fall on her and she would conceive a son, her first response was “How will this be since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34).
You can almost feel the stress in her voice. And rightly so. But the angel reassured her: “For no word from God will ever fail” (v. 37).
Once she stopped looking at the chaos of her life at that moment and looked up, calm reigned in her heart as she announced, “I am the Lord’s servant” (v.38).
While this season brings so much joy, so many people have a story of how this is the most stressful time of the year.
Calm can’t exist because there are presents to buy, decorations to put up, cookies to bake, parties to attend and so much more. How can I have calm?
The calm we need is found in the ONE we actually celebrate this season.
You see, Jesus, the King, could have come to this world in a posture of war. He is the King He can do what He wants.
He could have seen humanity and the mess it had caused and came with a fury.
Instead, He came to this world to bring calm to the chaos of humanity. He didn’t come like a hurricane. He came like softly fallen snow.
In her song “Winter Snow”, Audrey Assad says, “You could’ve come like a mighty storm, with all the strength of a hurricane. You could’ve come like a forest fire with the power of heaven in Your flame. But You came like a winter snow, quiet and soft and slow, falling from the sky in the night to the Earth below.”
What a gift for us to celebrate this season.
As you wake up tomorrow and reflect on the chaos of this season, may you take the time to reflect up on the One who brings calm to our souls, which we so desperately need in this very chaotic world.
And if this season is stressful, fix your eyes back on the King who came like softly fallen snow to bring calm to your soul.