by Whitney Swindle
Do you enjoy listening to Christmas music? If you’re anything like me, you eagerly anticipate the day after Thanksgiving when it feels fully acceptable to turn on the Christmas playlist. Or maybe you’re one of those “I play it all year round” or “It comes on right after Halloween” type people. I applaud your boldness. I’m a little more of a traditionalist, but I will admit, I turned it on the week before Thanksgiving this year. It was cold outside, and my heart simply needed some Christmas cheer. 
I’m sure we all have our favorites… Joy to the World, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, The First Noel, Little Drummer Boy… just to name a few. And I’m not ashamed to say, as a child of the 90s, NSYNC’s Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays gets its occasional turn too. I cannot speak for everyone, but I know for me, something inside my heart begins to shift when the melodies of these timeless Christmas carols play. Maybe it takes you back to sweet childhood memories. Maybe it causes hopeful anticipation for time spent with family on Christmas Day. Maybe you start thinking about the wonder when someone opens that perfect gift. Or maybe you think about singing Silent Night by candlelight. While I’d love to say that these timeless melodies and the Christmas season will always bring a spark of awe and wonder, I know that many of us may be faced with a different reality.
So the question becomes what does it look like to celebrate Christmas when we’re faced with circumstances that bring tidings of hardship and pain rather than comfort and joy? Or how is a “baby wrapped in swaddling cloths lying in a manger” supposed to bring “tidings of comfort and joy” when the world around us seems to be falling apart?
I think the answer is found in Luke 2:1-12 (ESV).
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
Jesus wasn’t born in a well-prepared hospital room or even a well-prepared home. I’d venture to say he wasn’t even born to well-prepared parents. “There was no room at the inn.” Imagine having nowhere other than a stable for barn animals to give birth to your first child, and not just any child… the Messiah, the Lord, the Savior of the world! But therein lies the hope of Christmas. Therein lies the reason to celebrate. The baby in the manger brings “tidings of comfort and joy” because that baby is Emmanuel, God with us. He is God with us in both the hardship and the joy.
The night Jesus was born was probably cold. Bethlehem wasn’t a particularly pretty place. Most people there were probably poor. Mary and Joseph didn’t have much, if anything.
So may we remember that we can celebrate this Christmas no matter what our circumstances may hold because the hope of Christmas is that our savior chose to enter a far from perfect world to rescue far from perfect people. He brings “tidings of comfort and joy” because no matter how difficult things may be or no matter how much we fall short, “Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”
