It’s Christmas morning, and the dark weight of the world rests kind of heavy on our shoulders. Too many are alone, waking in silence. Wanting and waiting.

This 2020–who hasn’t held their breathe?

That killer virus mockingly shaped like a crown came in unseen and hacked its way into the air we desperately need to sustain life, its toxins attacking so much of the world, proving how fragile we all really are. Then political division bore chasms into long-time friendships when rights became wrongs and people got meaner. Despair hid beneath the surface of the color of our skins. We hoarded toilet paper and masks/no masks polarized hearts and held minds hostage.

Trouble, isolation and exhaustion punctuate the end of this year.

But as I scanned the ancient Christmas story this morning, it sung out a reminder, “Do not be afraid.” It was the hope of the angels announcing the birth of a baby, a baby’s cry that echoed in the chambers of a cold, dank stable…the wail that pierced the secrecy of every shadowy night and each long, lonely day.

The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
For those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
Isaiah 9:2

I had forgotten about the 400 years of darkness and silence between the Old and New Testaments as Immanuel arrived breathing life into the dead air. When ten months of 2020 left chaos, loss and lament, I can’t imagine the weight of silence that 400 years carried. But I can however sit in the reality of a promise lived out. The Word that became flesh and punctured the darkest hours of 400 years, hovered in my living room this Christmas morning. And my soul felt its worth.

God is here. “Do not be afraid,” hope is calling, restoring your narrative with light.
He sees you and declares you’re worthy of that moment in Bethlehem when God became flesh for you, bringing light into the darkness that pierces this moment…your moment in time. And maybe, to restore wonder and magic of a special Christmas morning to your heart with new beginnings.

God is with you. Let your soul feel its worth.

But the angel reassured them. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people.
Luke 2:10