The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22-23 (ESV)

I mentioned recently that salvation is like a Christmas gift. By extension, life itself is a gift, because we cannot escape the grace God has extravagantly poured out upon us. Yes, our choices matter, and they determine our ability to experience the fullness of the life Jesus has for us. But for us, that begins with recognizing it is now Christmas morning, and there is a gift waiting for us under the tree. And God our Father is like a good parent beckoning us to come and open that gift.

We have spent a lot of time reflecting on suffering, and the reason for this is that it can prove to be a distraction, causing us to forget it is Christmas morning. When I first encountered real difficulty in life, I immediately went into problem-solving mode. I became convinced something was terribly wrong with me and that I needed to fix it. The message was, “If I do not do something about this, things will go horribly wrong, and I will deserve all of it.” I was doing what I had done all my life: If there is something wrong with me, I need to do everything in my power to correct the situation quickly so that I can be okay; so long as I was in the wrong, I was not okay; I had no right to enjoy life. But the thing I was trying to fix was beyond my pay grade; I was actually unable to fix me. The result was me being permanently stuck in problem-solving mode. Life itself became a problem to be solved instead of a gift to be enjoyed.

This is how suffering can prove to be a distraction, and I imagine it can take many forms in our lives. But the way we truly “fix” our problems is by recognizing Jesus is the solution to every problem we face. He is the ultimate Christmas gift. Whatever our problem, we can come to him. If we think we must be perfect, he causes us to rest in our imperfections by showing us in him we already are. If we think we must control others or our circumstances to be happy, he shows us happiness is not found in this world but in the kingdom that cannot be shaken. If we think we are all alone in our struggles, he shows us he is with us, and has been with us all along, an ever present help in our times of need. And so on. These gestures are not God’s refusing to fix the problems we face; it is his way of bringing us out of the shadows of our own lives and the false beliefs that dominate them into the light to the real solution.

God our Father is beckoning us to the gift he has for us under the tree, and to remind us that, now Jesus has come, every day is Christmas morning.

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