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Broken Christmas

Christmas is supposed to be a lovely season – right? Filled with hope and love. Decorated with sparkly, twinkly lights and the glitter of gifts.

Except when it’s not. Except when Christmas is broken.

Christmas is supposed to be a lovely season – right? Filled with hope and love. Decorated with sparkly, twinkly lights and the glitter of gifts.

Except when it’s not. Except when Christmas is broken.

A cancer diagnosis. A child who’s far away from home. A runaway spouse. Unemployment. Loneliness. COVID. Ugh…broken Christmas.

When life breaks all around us at Christmas we wonder what we’ve done wrong, and just where God is in this season.

He’s where he’s always been, at Christmas: Immanuel: God with us.

The very first Christmas was a broken Christmas. It began with a pregnant, unwed teen girl and a fiancé who wondered if she might have cheated on him. It continued with an elderly cousin of this teenager, also pregnant, whose pastor husband didn’t believe she could be pregnant. He was struck silent until the birth of his son.

A census was ordered where the young couple had to undergo a three-day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem – even though she was far along in her pregnancy. And then the first Christmas was born in a cattle trough, amongst animals, in a manger because there was no room for the little family in a proper inn.

Yes, the first Christmas was a broken Christmas, when God so loved our broken world that he gave His only son to be born, to grow up and walk this broken planet and to eventually die on a cross with His body broken for our need.

Aren’t you glad?

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”), Matthew 1:23.

Immanuel, God with us, has come to live with us in our broken world to redeem and mend us.

Merry broken Christmas.

 —Adapted from a previously published blog by Elisa Morgan at elisamorgan.com. Further distribution is prohibited without permission from the author.


28 Responses

  2. 2020 began with my marriage being annulled and then the pandemic set in and isolation ensued. Cut off from my community of choirs and music making and church gatherings and friends when I sorely needed a hug. I was alone yet again. I have been walking through this trying time in a darkness I didn’t make but a darkness that I needed. This darkness has let His light shine in my life – not necessarily making it easier – but showing me where I need Him – everywhere and in every way! Immanuel – amen! Maybe instead of fighting the darkness we are living in and feeling right now, we need to sit with it in silence, befriend it, and feel its intense intimacy and holiness. I know in my darkest times that is when God draws near. I have been dreading Christmas this year – without even my church family to gather with and yet I know that this could be the truest, holiest, most powerful – most real Christmas – since that first one so many years ago – before we muddled it up with good tidings of joy and presents and parties and reindeer and … Let’s sit in this dark Silent Night and let His radiant light illumine our hearts as nothing else can.

    Reply

    1. Erika, I am so grateful for your words. As much heartbreak as you have experienced your way with explaining the silence is so beautiful. I too, have walked through an isolating season of life and I kept praying Isaiah 58:8 – then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear. The year of my darkest season, I reflected on the birth of Christ in such a holy and beautiful way than ever before. You are walking into a transformative season and I pray you will feel Gods arms wrapped around you when you feel heavy. Thank you for blessing the GHH community with your powerful and insightful words.

      Please join our women’s prayer group and let us know how we can cover you in prayer. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1065571583891975

      Eryn
      Co-Host to God Hears Her Podcast

      Reply

      1. Thank you for sharing your insights and your caring encouragement Eryn. I too have Isaiah 58:8 ( actually almost the whole book of Isaiah!!) imprinted on my heart and prayed through. Such profound healing and promise that has stood the test of time. I am so grateful I found God Hears Her and the podcast has been so helpful. I feel as though I have found a new circle of friends to accompany me on my evening walks. Blessings to you this Advent season.

        Reply

  4. This brought tears to my eyes because for so long I would get depressed around Christmas time. I didn’t know why for years until I realized I had been getting hit every Christmas from my abusive husband. But now through Christ’s love and the true meaning of Christmas I have a completely different view of the season. PTL

    Reply

    1. Betty, thank you for sharing your heart with us. What a beautiful testimony of God recovering a sacred time of the year for you. We are so grateful you are a part of the GHH community!

      Please join our women’s prayer group and let us know how we can cover you in prayer. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1065571583891975

      Eryn
      Co-Host to God Hears Her Podcast

      Reply

  5. Beautiful true, and timely…a reminder that we are broken, but made whole in God’s love. We love because He first loved us.

    Reply

  6. My life is broken. I lost my husband that was suppose to grow old with me. Im very lonely n broken for sooo many reasons!

    Reply

  10. I so needed to read this this Christmas season. I have never looked at Jesus as being broken His whole life. It makes 2020 not seem so bad. Thank you Jesus.

    Reply

  11. Happy bless Broken Christmas. We are not alone. But rejoicing in our brokenness that we have a Saviour Jesus a gift to us. Hope of our Salvation. Thank You for an awesome encouragement and reality check.

    Reply

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