Christmas Turmoil

               Christmas is supposed to be a time for joy and peace.  Don’t we wish each other a merry Christmas?  However, there are those who can’t honestly say that the season is joyful and merry.  Perhaps the children are gone from the home, or the family can’t be together this year.  Maybe this is the first Christmas without your spouse or your mom or dad.  Death, financial lack, or some other heartache may have hit you during the holiday season.  Try as you might, you just can’t stir up much merry this year.

            My mind goes back to that first Christmas to the person of Joseph, Mary’s betrothed husband.  The news came to him that Mary was pregnant.  That news must have hit him so hard.  He knew that he wasn’t the father.  All his plans and future dreams with Mary came crashing down.  The Bible says he was a just man and didn’t want to hurt Mary publicly.  So, he was contemplating a quiet divorce, which would have been necessary even during the engagement period.  That first Christmas was going to be filled with turmoil for Joseph.

            While his troubled mind battled between anger, disappointment, and shame an angel appeared to him that changed everything.  Matthew 1:20 tells us: “But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit”.  The angel went on to tell Joseph to name the child Jesus because He would be the one to save His people from their sins.  The angel reassured Joseph that he and Mary would be a part of fulfilled prophecy.  Joseph woke up from his dream and did as the angel instructed him.  

The first Christmas started out in turmoil for Joseph.  But when God explained the real meaning to him, his fear turned to peace and his turmoil to obedience.  Perhaps the news of a Savior can melt away all our sorrows and disappointments and turn them into joy this Christmas.