It’s The Most Miserable Time of the Year

How Jesus’ Birth Gives Hope for the Hurting and Unhappy This Christmas Season

“It’s the most wonderful time of the year”. Many of us will hear the voice of Andy Williams in our speakers and stores this Christmas season. And yet, as much as I and many of us love the Christmas season, for many Christmas is a very difficult time of the year.

For the hurting and unhappy, Christmas means an exerted effort to hide deep pain. It means wrestling with deep loneliness as another lonely Christmas passes. It means recoiling at past painful memories associated with the Christmas season. Or it means remembering the happy Christmases of the past which are exactly that, the past. For some, Christmas is not the most wonderful time of the year. For some, it is the most miserable time of the year.

Interestingly, secular Christmas messaging and marketing seem to purport that the coming of the Christmas season magically results in the disappearance of trials and troubles. In our modern Christmas celebrations, there doesn’t seem to be room for the hurting and unhappy. In fact, there’s a name for those who come to Christmas parties killing the mood with mention of their sorrows and sufferings: the Grinch.

Christmas Doesn’t Ignore Your Pain

But not the Biblical Christmas story. The Biblical Christmas story allows and makes room for beauty and joy in spite of the circumstances we find ourselves in. For the Christian, Christmas doesn’t have to be the most miserable time of the year, and also doesn’t have to be a time where we pretend that it’s the most wonderful time of the year. For the Christian, the Christmas story doesn’t ignore our pain, but instead invites us to the person who knows and experienced our pain, and came to finally and fully destroy the source of that pain.

So maybe this Christmas, it doesn’t feel like the “most wonderful time of the year.” Maybe this Christmas you are hurting and unhappy. Maybe your heart isn’t glowing, you won’t be mistletoeing, and no matter how hard you try you can’t feel good cheer. Take heart, dear friend. There is hope for you this Christmas.

In fact, if that description fits you this Christmas, you need to listen and lean in even more to the Christmas story. Because at the heart of the Christmas story is God incarnate who came not for the whole, jolly, and happy, but the broken, hurting, and despairing. If you’re hurting and unhappy this Christmas, listen closely, because the story of Christmas is exactly what you need.

Remember the Real Christmas Story

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of the Christmas story, the story of Jesus’ birth? For many of us, we probably think of aesthetic nativity scenes with wise men and shepherds, a bright and shining star illuminating the sky, or cute baby Jesus wrapped in clean white swaddling cloths and lying in a sturdy wooden manger with fresh and wonderfully smelling hay. The images that pop into our head have likely been largely influenced by cultural notions of how Jesus was born.

When we look at Scripture however, we find that Jesus’ birth was anything but pretty and picture-perfect. On the contrary, from start to finish, the Biblical Christmas story is steeped in pain and difficulty. The Christmas story doesn’t ignore pain. It is engulfed with pain. So put on your imagination caps for a moment and consider with me the circumstances and context of Jesus’ birth.

A Strange Way to Save the World

For one, there’s the controversy of the virgin birth. As much as Mary and Joseph did no wrong, there were assuredly many personal, social, and familial challenges they encountered and a plethora of rumours going around. It was likely a complicated and stressful time.

Then consider the journey to Bethlem. Remember, Mary and Joseph didn’t have the luxury of speedy and comfortable long-distance transportation that we have today. Mary probably took the donkey express while Joseph traveled on his ten-toe turbos. The journey to Bethlehem would’ve been long and laborious. Not to mention that they were traveling to Bethlehem for civil purposes. Just imagine the ancient version of the DMV, but probably way worse. It would’ve been miserable.

Then, as if things couldn’t get any worse, Joseph and Mary couldn’t find anywhere to stay. And Mary was pregnant! For all you superhero moms out there, I’m sure you can only imagine how the circumstances excacerbated Mary’s prenatal labor pains. And for all the husbands, just imagine what Joseph must’ve been thinking. “This is no way to provide for my wife and soon to be son!” “What am I to do if I can’t find anywhere for us to stay??” I think we can all get the point. Joseph and Mary were certainly anxious, afraid, and uncertain of how their story would end. Complexity and chaos is woven into the fabric of this story!

Although there’s much more that could be said, lastly consider the unsanitary and unusual “hospital” where Jesus was born. Contrary to what our North Americanized and aesthetically pleasing nativity scenes portray, Jesus was born in an unsanitary, unsterilized, and unfit place. He was placed in a manger where dirty animals ate from, and was surrounded by smelly and noisy cattle. It was hardly an ideal situation. As stated before, from start to finish the story of Jesus’ birth is anything from pretty or picture-perfect. It is filled with tension, stress, difficulty, and pain.

When Misery Gives Way to Majesty

And yet, amidst the inconvenience and endless amount of difficulties, something majestic and miraculous takes place. In a historic and climactic moment, great misery gives way to glorious majesty. In what many would call the most miserable of moments and terrible of times, Jesus Christ, the hope and Savior of the world is born! There are breathtaking scenes to imagine! In the countryside, angels rejoice and break into heavenly song, far away, famous rulers travel long and far to humbly bow before the true Ruler of all, and Mary quietly rejoices that God would use her broken vessel to carry the greatest and most glorious figure in all of human history.

So don’t you see? Amidst all the pain, and fatigue, and uncertainty emerges a little baby boy who will bring hope and life to the nations of all the earth. Hope, peace, and joy come not because of the absence of difficulty, suffering, and sorrow, but because of the presence of hope, peace, joy, and life, Jesus Christ the Son of God. This is the beauty of the Christmas story! This is what enables us to say, even amidst our pain, that it is a truly wonderful time of the year!

True Hope and Real Happiness in the Story of Christmas: Christ Has Come!

So if you’re hurting and unhappy this Christmas season remember, the Christmas story doesn’t ignore your pain, it recognizes your pain, resonates with your pain, and points you to the person who can give you peace and joy in the midst of your pain. This Christmas, God invites you to look to the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. He invites you to not only consider the story of a little baby’s birth, but to also consider the story of a grown man’s death. This Christmas, He invites you to lay your burdens at the foot of the cross and find the hope, peace, and joy that is unwavering, uncircumstantial, and unending; the salvation from the Savior who came for us sinners and slaves! That is your hope this Christmas. That is the truth that can comfort you in your hurt and give you joy in your unhappiness. That is the true beauty of Christmas and the real reason why it can be the most wonderful time of the year.