I love the Christmas season! Homes beautifully outfitted in the best Christmas décor, rooms filled with sweet Christmas tunes that brighten your day, and the rich scent of succulent meals are all elements that make this time of year my favorite. Over the years, I’ve found myself looking forward to the Christmas season for many reasons—one of them now being my daughter’s birthday. After a difficult and scary pregnancy, on December 20, 2017, I was induced at 33 weeks and 5 days and my beautiful daughter Emerie came crashing into the world weighing just a few pounds. At the sight of her, I found myself completely head-over-heels in love. Although I spent my first Christmas as a mommy in the NICU, I was still overjoyed at the fact that I could finally hold my dear daughter in my arms.
The holiday season became an even more special time to me with the birth of my daughter, but I’d be lying if I said this time was without testing. Those days in the hospital were some of the longest and hardest days I’ve ever experienced. The trauma of birthing my daughter so early was mentally, physically, and spiritually taxing; I was forced to reckon with myself on what I believe and why. In the days after my daughter’s birth, I prayed so hard for her little life. I wanted her to live and thrive. I struggled with worry, anxiety, and fear. I hoped for my daughter’s healing. I hoped that we would get to go home. I hoped the change in circumstances would mean a better version of myself. But those days spent in the NICU revealed the need for a greater and more certain hope, because they exposed two problems that no discharge or clean bill of health could heal: the world needs saving from sickness, suffering, fear, and death, and mankind needs saving from its spiritually sick sinful condition.
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, they listened to the lies of the serpent instead of the life-giving word of God. Sin entered the world. God’s good creation became riddled with disease, decay, and death. And his very good creation, mankind, became plagued by shame and spiritual death, because sin separated them from God. Adam, and every person born after him, was now justly deserving of God’s wrath against sin, and in desperate need of rescue from themselves.
But God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, had a plan to redeem man and reconcile his people back to himself, a plan to redeem the whole earth. And in Genesis 3:15, we see Scripture’s first promise of redemption in words spoken by God to the serpent: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
Here, the Lord God is alluding to the coming of Jesus Christ, the great Redeemer, the one and only Messiah. Jesus Christ was born into this world for the purpose of obeying perfectly where Adam had failed. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”Christ’s birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection are all purposeful in God’s divine plan of saving sinners. He lived the perfect life we couldn’t, died the death we deserved in our place, and was raised so that we could have new life in him. Without Jesus Christ, there would be absolutely no hope for mankind.
And this, my sister, was the truth that I desperately needed on those countless days in the hospital. I needed to remember the truth of the Gospel. I needed to know that regardless of the outcome with my sweet little baby, I had a hope in Christ that was far greater and that far outweighed any bad (or good) earthly circumstances. I needed to remember that Christ freed me from the jail of sin, and one day I will rejoice in Heaven with him in a glorified body with an undivided heart.
More than any other reason, I love the Christmas season because I am reminded that Jesus came for me. He was born for me. He died to save me, and all who place their faith in him. He was raised to life, and one day we will be too. We will live with him forever in a new earth, a redeemed creation with no threat of death, disease, or decay. No matter the circumstance, Jesus is man’s greatest hope! Because of his great sacrifice, believers everywhere can rejoice in the direst situations because of that blessed hope we have in him!
QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION/APPLICATION:
How have you seen the need for the hope Christ provides for salvation from sin in the context of motherhood? How have you seen it in yourself? In your children?
Where do you see the need for the hope Christ provides for the redemption of all creation? Do you have friends who are sick or suffering? How has your own family experienced sorrow or pain this year?
How do the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus make it possible to have hope when you see your own sin? The sin of your children? Suffering and pain? The state of the world?
In 1 Peter 3:15, we are encouraged to always be prepared to make a defense for the hope that is in us. How would you share the hope of the Gospel with someone who has never heard it, or perhaps with someone who has lost sight of its hope? (Note: If you have never heard this message before, feel free to message me, Abbey, a Christian friend, or the staff at a local church to learn about how you can have this hope in Christ!)
Portia Collins is a Christian Bible teacher, author, and podcast host. She loves God's Word and enjoys studying and teaching Scripture. In 2016, Portia founded "She Shall Be Called" (SSBC), a women’s ministry purposed to help women understand and embrace true biblical womanhood through solid study of God's Word. Portia and her husband, Mikhail, have a daughter and currently live in the Mississippi Delta. You can check out more from Portia by visiting her website at www.portiacollins.comor by following her on social media @portiawcollins.