Delight and Rejoice

Happy December 1st!  Can you believe it has been 12 months of monthly themes here at Delight & Be? What an incredible year it has been!  Thank you to all of you who have joined along with us every month!  We are eagerly anticipating our upcoming 2016 themes & hope you will join us!! 

by: Charissa Wong

This is it!! It’s finally after Thanksgiving, so you can finally start playing Christmas music! Or, if you’re like me, you’ve already been listening for months. I just cannot help feeling like everything that surrounds Christmas time screams: rejoice.

Bells chiming in the cold December air sing their own little chorus of “rejoice, rejoice, rejoice”. Sparkly red, green, gold, silver, and white ribbons make my heart leap with the way they shine out the news : it is a season of rejoicing! Little kids’ faces on Christmas morning [let’s be real here : and all of our faces too] when they open up that Christmas present and it is the best surprise they weren’t expecting: exultant rejoicing. Warm socks make my toes want to rejoice, and all of our noses are rejoicing when the hams and the pies are coming out of the oven.

Christmas has become this cultural holiday where everyone takes time off of work, gathers around with family, or friends so close that they are family, and shares in the rejoicing of the holidays. Now, I firmly believe in rejoicing over all of the little things and celebrating Christmas that specific way that your family does. Maybe your Christmas is simple or extremely extravagant, but there is always that unique way that you and your loved ones rejoice together. My hope is that we will all soak in the rejoicing together this season.

But, I have something even bigger to rejoice over. Something that is cause to rejoice all year long, really. Something that can cause you to rejoice, even if all of the other parts of your Christmas are a broken mess. Because you see, if you are a Christ Follower, there is something else about Christmas that doesn’t come in all of the sparkly ribbons and cheesy Christmas movies.

It comes in the news of a pregnancy. A supernatural, unreal type of pregnancy. A virgin with child. Unheard of, unbelievable. And yet, God sends His Heavenly Beings to confirm it to His people. He fulfills prophecies laid out hundreds of years before by men that are long gone by now. The birth of a child that would change the world, forever. A child that brings the greatest gift of hope and love that the world would ever know. Rejoice.

Maji traveled for miles and miles to meet this child, to bring Him the gifts of utmost honor. His parents had to radically shift their life plans on several occasions to keep Him safe. Shepherd boys and angels were singing His praise.

But why? Why all of this hub-bub over a baby?

Well because, like I said, this baby was going to change the world. This God-Man was God’s incredible gift of love to us. You see, before the arrival of this babe, we were all “lost in our transgressions and sins” [Ephesians 2.1]. Destined to be separated from our Creator forever. God is good, actually, God is perfect. Completely pure and perfect, entirely worthy of all praise and affection. But man, wanting to worship himself and be the center of his own universe, turned his own way. Each of us, born into the world have come with our own desire to be the king of our own castle. I am sure you have felt the awful effects of these desires more than once in your life. A self-centered life is one of constant dissatisfaction, striving, and brokenness.

Thankfully! There was one babe born into the world with the ability to set us free from our enslavement. How was he capable, and not we? He was not only fully man, but also fully God. Again, something so so difficult to wrap our minds around. And yet, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are–yet He did not sin” [Hebrews 4.15]. A God-Man who was faced with the same temptation and even the right to revolve the universe around Himself [and the ability to make it so], and yet, He made Himself lowly and was treated despicably by mankind.

Here comes the part where we rejoice! Get ready to break out into the Hallelujah Chorus!

O come, O come, Emmanuel
And ransom captive Israel
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to thee, O Israel

Emmanuel, God with us, is Jesus Christ, come to save us from our enslavement to sin. Come, rejoice! The Savior, the Christ, He came in the form of a babe and now we have reason to rejoice this holiday season, and every day. He was humbly born, laid in a manger where animals find their life’s source of scraps and hay, and was celebrated by all who were only vaguely aware of what this God-sent package meant for mankind. He walked and talked among the people, made friends with those that the world saw as disgusting, healed the sick, and brought forgiveness to those who had the faith to receive it. Such wonderful tidings He brought to the people as He shared stories of second chances, mercy for the undeserving, and the lowly being lifted high.

While wonderful, that is not even the best part. It was His death, His suffering, His cross that is the greatest gift we could have received. Because of His sacrifice, we can rejoice! It seems so twisted to have joy because of His awful suffering, yet it is the greatest act of love we’ve ever encountered. His perfection, His loveliness enabled Him to be the One who sacrificed, died to Himself and His rights as the perfect God-Man, to take the punishment that we deserve. He bore our suffering and handed us the opportunity to be freed from our brokenness, from our dissatisfactory striving, from a life of seeking the success of our own kingdom. We can see outside of ourselves, serve and love on others, and worship the God who makes all things beautiful. We’ve been given the opportunity to truly live.

Now, all you need to do is receive. Receive and rejoice.

Through Him we have also obtained access by faith,
into this grace in which we stand,
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
[Romans 5.2]