Do you love a hot mug of cocoa? There is something magical about that steamy chocolate aroma rising from your favorite mug, feeling the warmth of a fire while relaxing in the comfort of your jammies under a blanket, watching a Christmas movie sheltered from the furiously swirling snow outside! This is one of the holiday’s most delectable sweet treats! It’s almost as if the rest of the world and all its chaos get left outside with the snow as the hot liquid mysteriously settles peacefully on your soul.
When I was a little boy we used to participate in a drive through nativity at our church. Each Christmas season, for about a week or two, we would dress up in biblical costumes and stand in different silent but live scenes chronologically depicting the story of the birth of Christ. Each person would be on a 30 min to a 1-hour shift until the traffic control would halt the line of cars and everyone would swap out. People inside would come out and those who were out would head inside to take a break and warmup.
I remember how fun it was to freeze for a little bit as cars drove by being a small part of their grand adventure back in time to the first Christmas. But what I really loved, was going inside on breaks or after it was over, and warming my chilled bones with chili or soup and especially hot chocolate. That piping hot drink had mythical powers to restore from the frigid elements outside. (It may have been the chemicals that we ingested with it from the melting of the little Styrofoam cups.) It always brought peace, however, as I sipped and slurped with friends, laughing and talking about the people passing and whether or not they heard that fart or if we all saw that cute girl!
We are heading into the second week of advent and the theme is peace. I want to present it to you like that hot cocoa on a cold night. Less about the toxic contents of a Styrofoam cup and more about the practicality of receiving Jesus this Christmas. It is not a removal of the cold, it’s a solace within. It’s not a jailbreak escape from, but it is transformative, right in the thick of it.
In the Old Testament there was a widely known prophecy about a coming redemption and most of them all spoke of a person to bring about salvation, a coming king (Isaiah 9 and 40 just to name a couple). (We know him as Jesus, but they didn’t, yet.) This overarching promise gave hope (last week’s theme) that no matter how bad things were currently, or how dark they might get, eventually, God would provide restoration. The people of God held fast to this despite exile, famine, and oppression. And in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, they saw the proof of that promise.
As God broken into human reality, taking the form of a man, the fulfillment of that promise arrived. The sign for the shepherds was a baby (Luke 2:8-14). This is simply a visible reality of new life. The sign is still a baby, and the reality is still new life. This is where peace comes from. The kind of peace that is hot chocolate on a cold winter’s night. The kind of peace that will “guard our hearts,” as Paul writes, “that surpasses knowledge and understanding.” (Philippians 4:7)
Where is there NO PEACE in your life?
Where is the bitterness of life swirling about in chaos making your reality an impossible place of comfort?
What is your great need for peace?
I invite you to drink up, stay warm, and let the peace of Jesus settle on your spirit as the presence of God goes down into your core in the midst of the chaos this Christmas!
#SeasonOfSweetness
#Peace
#HotChocolate
#RestoringWholenessOfLife
Brett
0 Comments