Christmas for some stirs up as much sadness as gladness. This is especially true for those who have lost someone close, those experiencing loneliness, those for whom hope seems distant. Perhaps that is you or someone you know. 

How thankful I am that we have a high priest acquainted with sorrow, one who began human life in the grit and grime of a feeding trough. The Son of Man’s origin story isn’t whitewashed. Good tidings of great joy are there alongside ​“Rachel weeping for her children… because they are not” (Matt 2:18). 

But no matter the darkness then or now there is good reason to light a candle of hope. This suffering, our Master’s and our own, is going somewhere. And that somewhere is joy — the rich and resilient kind, the kind set before Jesus that sustained him in his darkest hour.

Though we may have been disappointed in the past and perhaps even come to fear joy, Trevor Hudson reminds us that ​“Advent invites us to overcome our fear and to receive the joy that Jesus brings.” 

May your capacity for joy increase this Christmas,