Yet another individual tragedy this past week. A well-loved Christian radio personality here in the Los Angeles area died of injuries he received a month ago in a motorcycle accident.
For whatever reason, many US citizens continue to struggle to cope with the violent deaths of so many school children in Connecticut a week ago.
Then I learned on Tuesday that a killer typhoon hit the southern Philippines. Hundreds of fishermen are lost, children are traumatized, the death toll has reached over a thousand, and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes.
Joy to the world?
I’ve had it, some people are saying, Christmas is over. Who can celebrate when the world is in such turmoil, when sorrow is so present, when there seems to be so little to engender joy?
But isn’t this precisely why we must celebrate Christmas? Not the Christmas of Santa and Fa-la-la-la-la or Black Friday Greed. Not that Christmas.
What we need to celebrate is God, come down to rescue us from the trauma of sin that puts puts evil intent in the hearts of people and corrupts the very fabric of our planet.
Christmas is proof that God hasn’t left us to cope on our own, that He has a solution.
Good news! the angel said to the shepherds, that night Jesus was born; this joyful announcement is for all people–you have a Savior.
Who needs a Savior? Not those living contentedly, convinced of their own ability to heal the woes of Mankind. Not those untouched by fear or grief or devastation.
Who needs the joyful announcement, The Savior has come? People aware of their need for a Savior.
In the midst of an obviously broken world, Jesus appears with comfort and assurance. For those who trust Him, He gives His presence through the dark and His promise that things won’t always be like this. Sin won’t win. There is a future and a hope.
That’s good news, joy for the whole world.
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A Christian Worldview of Fiction 
Yet, the world has always been in such turmoil. Doesn’t anyone read their history anymore?
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The world has indeed always been in such turmoil. Yet knowing it from history isn’t the same as experiencing our own personal turmoil. I think each generation, each person needs to come to grips with death and suffering and man’s inhumanity to our neighbors and family.
Becky
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The greatest gift, in all eternity, is the Light-filled Presence of God! We can celebrate the fact that He will be there, at every moment of tragedy, able and willing to help each person who needs and wants Him, whether we can be a part of that in any other way than prayer, or not. What a wonderful Savior!
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And in the face of all that suffering and evil, how can people believe that there is any inherent hope in humanity or in the world, that we are steadily progressing and evolving, that the world is basically good? I’m far too disillusioned and pessimistic to be an atheist. If not for Christmas, the very best we could to would be to collectively commit suicide.
But there is Christmas.
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