Christmas songs blaring loudly in crowded shopping malls attempt to make us feel happy and jolly but deep down we all struggle with the problem of pain.  However, Christmas also does bring a hidden message that there is a solution to the problem of pain.

A relative of mine was recently remarking to me about a co-worker that had bought a brand new car.  The car looked stylish and sporty on the outside but on the inside various sensors and warning lights were going off.  The cost of the repairs were in the hundreds and sometimes in the thousands of dollars.  I know the feeling, I’ve had a used car that seemed to have the “check engine” light go off on every other ride I took it on.   I wanted to reset the light but not really deal with the cost of repairing the root cause of the warning.  During this holiday season, many of us will be attempting to “turn off” the “check engine” lights deep down in our hearts and spirits and dull the “pain” we are experiencing by getting all the gifts we can buy or receive, gorge ourselves with food and desserts, and sometimes even worse: turn to excess alcohol, prescription drugs, pornography, or illicit activities.  We want to experience the highs we are “supposed to” this “jolly” time of the year but come crashing down emotionally and sometimes even physically afterwards.  The “check your life” light was temporarily reset, but the emptiness causing it didn’t go away.

If you read real close to the original Christmas story, you see a couple in a social, relational, financial and emotional dilemma. Joseph was facing some tough questions in his relationship with his fiancé, Mary. “Did she cheat on me?”, a young, engaged man asks.  “How are we going to afford this trip to deal with our taxes?”.  He arrives at the destination and finds himself, his bride to be, and their new born Baby temporarily homeless.  “What am I doing in this dump?  I thought at this point in my life I would be able to take better care of my family, I’d have a better position, and be able to afford the finest vacations”.  He suffers from self-doubt, the pain of regret, and the discomfort of not having enough money to buy better accommodations for his family.  But somehow, there was a bigger plan for his life.  The Baby that was sleeping in a dirty, wooden box was going to literally change the world.  The pain he was experiencing had a bigger purpose as long as he didn’t give up.  He just needed to keep pushing forward.  His life had meaning when he realized it was to be lived for those closest to him, to those most vulnerable to the pain and suffering the world could inflict on him.

I wonder if my Dad, John Williams, felt the same way.  His youngest child, me, had to sleep in a cardboard box as a baby.  Feeding six kids and having a wife that barely spoke English was tough for a recently discharged soldier looking for work and finding some as a garbage collector.  But he kept pushing on, never giving up, even when the pain of “breaking his back” just to put food on the table threatened his emotional and physical health.  I don’t know how he did it.  But I remember how he would bow his head as though he was praying.  Sometimes he would say to me that sometimes he felt like a motherless child.  Coincidentally, my Dad, John, was born to his Mom, my grandmother named Mary, on December 25th.

You see, the Christmas story, is the story of the God the made us and created us, did something to deal with our suffering and had a meaningful purpose for our lives.  He showed those who would notice, that He suffers, He feels our pain and cares enough to give us something of greatest value.  The Baby, his Son, grew up suffering as we do, being rejected by the people He loved and belonged to, and then was tortured and put to death with us on His mind and heart.  He bore our pain and our failures so we could rise again…forever.  If you seek Him this Christmas in desperation and honesty, you will find Him.  Better yet, He will find you.

“For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”