Posted on December 20, 2024 by Ruth Barz, tLMHC
Mental Health
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This phrase brings excited squeals from children and conjures up pictures of perfectly decorated Christmas trees, plates of Christmas cookies, and gifts wrapped with beautiful bows. For many people it means gathering with family and friends and partaking in traditions handed down for generations. For Christians, it means the beginning of the church year where we celebrate that our God became “flesh and dwelt among us.” Or as the Message paraphrases John 1: 14…
And what a mess He moved into. In some homes this Christmas there is no Hallmark movie scene but rather fighting and strife as marriages are ending or in a cycle of perpetual fighting. Some homes have an empty place at the table where the conflict has caused an adult child not to come home for the holidays. Or some empty chairs represent loved ones who have died this past year, and this is the first Christmas in which their absence is felt with sharp pain. We thought you moved into the neighborhood, Lord?
Over the past couple of weeks, our family has kept vigil as our son Zachary, a missionary in Costa Rica, was home for Thanksgiving and was notified that one of his teammates (Jessie) who had stayed in Costa Rica had been in a very serious car accident. Zach and most of the rest of the team returned to Costa Rica, and a couple of them were able to see Jessie in the hospital. But a week and a half after the accident Jessie went to be with Jesus, her body unable to survive the serious injuries it sustained. Her family and friends grieve. Why would God let a young missionary die? We thought you moved into the neighborhood, Lord?
The varied kinds of pain, disappointment, fear, and uncertainty are too numerous to list, but they can leave each of us wondering where the hope is. In my job as a mental health counselor, I hear about this despair every day. The sin that brings pain and fear touches us all – no one is immune. “Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.” (Romans 5:12) We thought God’s “coming into the neighborhood” would make everything better.
Sometimes we are not much different than the Jews of the Old Testament who thought the coming Messiah would set up an earthly kingdom that would get them out from Roman rule and give them the freedoms and power they longed for. If we are honest, it is sometimes tempting to imagine that the lives we lead to honor our Savior and the prayers we earnestly pray will protect us in some way from the pain and struggle of this sinful world. We lose focus if we think God’s primary purpose for “moving into the neighborhood” was to ease all our present suffering. Matthew 20:28 says “even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” At Christmas, as we celebrate Jesus coming into the world, we are celebrating the purpose for which he came – to suffer and die.
Jesus came “into the neighborhood” to “seek and save the lost” (Luke 19:10) which is all of us. And He did that by his death, the shedding of His innocent blood, so that those who believe in Him will have the sure hope of eternal life (1 Peter 1:18-21). An Advent sermon by LCMS Pastor Matt Popovits gives a beautiful picture of why Jesus coming to earth to suffer and die gives us hope amid despair. He shares what Peter, James, and John discovered about Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration – that He truly is God’s Son.
Indeed, this is what makes the advent of Jesus, the birth of Christ, such a pivotal and powerful celebration for us. We have the gift of knowing what Peter, James, and John discovered on the top of that mountain. We know who Jesus is and we can look back at his birth and appreciate it, more fully, for what it is. This is God himself, God’s own Son, kneeling down and joining all of frightened humanity on the ground. This is God—in taking on skin and bone, in being born a man—touching each one of us on the head to let us know he’s near. This is God squaring up with us and filling the frame so full of his presence that we have no choice but to focus on him and push away all else that might distract us from his presence. This is the God of the universe saying, “I am with you. And I am for you.”
So, we celebrate this Christmas not because we have the perfect tree or the perfect family, but because Jesus moved into the mess of each of our worlds to take on our suffering and brokenness, to experience the pain, fear, and the separation from God that our sin caused, in order that we might have sure hope. We now have sure hope of eternal life and sure hope that Christ is present with us as we suffer on earth. Jesus wants our earthly views to be so filled with His presence that we “focus on Him and push away all else that might distract us from his presence.”
So even as you might be grieving the absence of loved ones, of estranged family members, of broken relationships, or bodies racked with sickness, take heart – fill your view with the amazing love your Heavenly Father has for you that He sent Jesus, His son, into your messy neighborhood to be with you and give you eternal hope.
Ruth sees clients at Lutheran Family Service’s Dubuque, Iowa office, and is available one day a week at the Bettendorf office, and throughout the state of Iowa via telehealth.
If you or someone you know is in need of Christ-centered mental health or marriage counseling, refer to or contact us today.
Not located near Dubuque or Bettendorf, Iowa? Visit our website to see if one of our other locations is near you, or, if telehealth/distance counseling is an option at: lutheranfamilyservice.org/mental-health-counseling.
Lutheran Family Service walks with those experiencing difficult times through mental health counseling, marriage counseling, crisis pregnancy counseling, and adoption services.
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