Thought for Today

Thanksgiving week. We are now officially entering the holiday season that runs from Thanksgiving through Christmas and on to New Year’s Day. For many it is a time of gratitude and thanksgiving, a time to revel in one’s family, a wonderful time of giving. Within the church, we celebrate the four weeks of Advent, a joyful time of preparing for Christ’s birth.

For many, instead of being a time of celebration and joy, it is a tremendously difficult season, a time of sorrow, loneliness, and loss; a time of being reminded of what one desperately desires but doesn’t have.

Perhaps one has recently lost a spouse, child, parent, or other loved one through death. Or maybe one has just been through a divorce. Perhaps one is single, longing for marriage and a family of their own, but for any number of possible reasons has little to no hope of that ever coming to fruition. Or maybe one’s family is severely dysfunctional. Perhaps you have or had a verbally or physically abusive parent or spouse, or even a relative who was sexually abusive. Instead of joy, there is ongoing pain, pain that at times seems overwhelming. Instead of love, trust, and support, there is a never-ending fear about when the next trauma will occur.

In my own life, in terms of being on the receiving end, I check most of those boxes. In some respects the holiday season is the most difficult time of the year for me, and in some ways, I look forward to January 2. Especially if one’s losses are recent, taking time to grieve is critically important, but staying stuck there year after year is not helpful.

First and foremost, placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ is vital. Not only are one’s sins forgiven, not only does one no longer have to carry the weight of one’s own wrongdoing, one then comes into a relationship with God: the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Being known and loved by God the Father brings significant healing.

It is hard for us to separate our image of God the Father from our human father. If our human father was physically abusive, or an absent workaholic, or abandoned us, or died when we were young, trust in God the Father is often harder, as we tend to see God the Father in those terms. It takes time for us to realize that God the Father is the perfect caring and loving Father. Yet even with healing, scars remain.

Why does God allow us to go through these sorts of things? Part of it relates to the reality of human sin: human sin never just impacts the person who commits it, but also those around that person. As believers in Christ we can take comfort that God truly takes everything that happens to us and somehow works that for good (Romans 8:28).

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 comes to mind: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (NAU)

God allows us to go through those things so that we can comfort others who suffer from the same things with the comfort we have received from God. We can’t offer God’s genuine comfort to others if we, ourselves, haven’t experienced or received it.

During this holiday season, may you come to faith in Jesus Christ. May you come to know the love of God. May you truly know His comfort.