It Starts and Ends with Jesus

Big Point: Our day may be filled with what we don’t have, but we can start and end with the one thing we do have.

Matthew 1:23 (NLT):  Look! The virgin will conceive a child!     She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”

It’s Christmas Eve!  Depending on where you are, today may be or already has been, a day filled with peace and quiet, or frantic rushing and running from one place to another.

If you’ve ever been at the mall on Christmas Eve, you know the pandemonium that pervades every space. People from all walks of life rush from one store to the next carrying all kinds of excuses for why they left last minute details for the last shopping day before Christmas.

“I didn’t have enough time.”

“I didn’t have enough money until now.”

“I didn’t have any idea of what to buy.”

Notice the words “I didn’t have…” Even if you aren’t out shopping, you may still identify with the sentiment that something is missing from your Christmas experience and your heart is longing to find it. Perhaps you don’t have family and friends to celebrate Christmas with you. Maybe you don’t have the presence of a loved one. Some of us don’t have peace or joy because of one life situation or another.

Yet, on this Christmas Eve, we DO HAVE Jesus. We do have the one who came to be with us and to walk among us. And we do have what he wants – our heart. Jesus understands our broken world and he knows the feelings that come with our broken hearts and he wants them all anyways.

Best of all, Jesus came because he had something that we can’t find last minute on Amazon: Hope. We can celebrate today because Jesus came to bring each one of us HOPE. Think of it – we can have hope and know that God loves us! We don’t have to despair over our present day circumstances, rather we can look forward and know that Jesus’ great love for us fills in – and overflows – all of the empty places in our lives. And that hope isn’t just for the 24 hours of Christmas, rather Jesus’ hope can flow through into our daily lives and with us for all eternity.

Jesus came to make his home in our hearts. Jesus came to make his home in YOUR heart.

Remember the refrain in the classic song “Joy to the World”?

Joy to the world, the Lord has come.

Let earth receive her king.

Let every heart prepare him room.

REFLECTION:

If you’ve made room for Jesus in your heart, that’s great! Are there any areas of your life where you’ve been struggling to let Jesus in? What do you think Jesus could do in that area of your life if you’d let him?

There’s so much that we can celebrate tomorrow on Christmas. List a few things that you’ll be celebrating