Christmas Day is almost here. The time leading up to the celebration is filled with hope and expectation. This hope moves us to a sense that life will be improved with Christmas and the new year or at least we may have a greater appreciation for what we have and how we share it. 

We experience these sentiments in the Christmas classics. In “A Charlie Brown Christmas”, Charlie chooses a small live tree to decorate for their pageant. It is only at the end when everyone comes together to decorate the tree, that its beauty shines.  In Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, Scrooge undergoes a change of heart and life. In one night, he moves from miserly to generous. “It’s a Wonderful Life” examines how untold and unrealized actions affect those around us.  

In Scripture, Isaiah 35 is a perfect Advent reading. It relates a vision of the Israelites’ return to Jerusalem when the Babylonian exile has ended. It tells of God’s presence in mighty ways. The desert will bloom. It will show life and vitality instead of death and foreboding. And there will be a highway, a Holy Way, that will be wide and straight. So much so that you will not lose your way or wander away from the desired path. It will also be a place of safety and security. Amid this, we will “see” and be “strengthened” and made “firm”. Fear will be pushed out by God’s presence. Hopefulness and beauty abound.

These days may also have their share of anxiety, sadness, grief, guilt, uncertainty and at least tiredness. This time of celebration heightens what is good, but also what is lacking. It can bring to mind shortcomings, pain and loss. Our lives, and the lives of those around us, do not necessarily follow a Christmas classic script. Sometimes, change for the better is not forthcoming or at least not coming quickly enough.  

During the Advent season’s worship services, we hear from John the Baptist. One recent reading was from Matthew 11 where John, who is in prison, sends disciples to Jesus. They convey John’s question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” It seems that Jesus’ actions were not what John expected. John was looking for the world to be turned around with the presence of the messiah and that he would bring repentance and fire.  

Instead, Jesus’ answer is about the blind, the lame, lepers, the deaf, the dead and that the poor have Good News brought to them. It hearkens back to that passage from Isaiah and the new life God is bringing. Maybe that word of hope and healing is what John needed to hear in his prison cell. The one who was free in the wilderness is now incarcerated. The one who was surrounded by crowds coming from all over, is isolated. The one who was so verbose about his faith is asking Jesus, “Are you the one...?” As the Good News comes to the poor and those others in need, it comes to John in his time of need as well.  

These are glorious and exhausting days leading to a wonderful celebration. May the Good News that Jesus brings touch your lives with hope and healing.

— Reflections appears regularly on the religion page. The column features a variety of local writers, coordinated through the Monroe Area Clergy Group. John Tabaka is pastor of Grace Lutheran Church, Monroe.