If “Tis’ the season to be jolly”, why do I feel so sad?

Christmas is supposed to be “The most wonderful time of the year”.  Our days are supposed to be “merry and bright”, and our nights silent.  So why are so many people laying their heads on their pillows at night with bodies that ache, minds that race, hearts that are anxious, and eyes that leak loneliness?


Working in health care, I get a front row view into the pain that people carry.  This time of year, though no one’s said it in words, I can hear so many people asking, “If ‘tis the season to be jolly’, why do I feel so sad?”


If we would slow down long enough to listen, we would hear stories of love lost, of expectations unmet, of traditions ending.  We’d hear stories of exhausting schedules, crazy family dynamics, feeling forgotten, and desperately trying to convince those around us, and mainly ourselves, that this really is the most wonderful time of the year.

Hopeless.

Forgotten.

Not enough.

Too much.

Have you felt that way before?  Are you feeling that way now?


You’re not alone.


One of my favorite things to do this time of year is read the Christmas story in the Bible over and over again.  The story never changes, but each year I read something new.  This year, I read the story as if I were one of the characters. 


I pictured myself as a shepherd.  An unknown, thankless, community misfit.  Shepherds put in long hours, in horrible conditions, and were thought to be of little value to the rest of society. 

Sometimes I feel like a shepherd:  exhausted, unseen, unknown.

Then I read the story again, and pictured myself as Mary.  A young woman, finding myself pregnant and knowing I’d have to explain something inexplicable to my fiancé.  Treasuring up the wonder and awe of what God was doing, all the while knowing that Joseph and all my family and friends might ridicule and reject me.  A young, pregnant, unwed woman left to fend for myself in a culture that was not very forgiving in those ways.  

Sometimes I feel like Mary: Carrying within me dreams and hopes implanted by God Himself while fearing ridicule and rejection from those closest to me.  Feeling vulnerable in an unforgiving world.

Then I read the story and pictured myself as Joseph.  A good man, just trying to make an honest living, wanting to lead a quiet life with my betrothed, only to find myself thrown into a dramatic story of dreams, and angels, and a crazy king who wants to kill my son. 

Sometimes I feel like Joseph:  Caught up in a whirlwind of drama that I didn’t sign up for.

Can you relate?


Many of us have elevated the people in the Christmas story to super-human or otherworldly status.  They’ve become so holy and set apart that we see them as perfect little figurines that sit pristinely in the nativity scene that is on display on our mantle.


We forget that Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds were just like you and me.  They were humans with the same body aches and heart aches that we feel.  

Just like you and I, they were scared, they were tired, they were confused, BUT they trusted Him and obeyed.

In Matthew 1:24, right after an angel had appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him not to fear taking Mary as a wife, it says, “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife”.


In Luke 2:15-16a, after a host of angels appeared to the shepherds telling them about the Good news of Great joy that will be for ALL people, the shepherds responded with saying, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste…” 


Mary’s response to the angel Gabriel who told her that she would bear in her womb, the Savior of the world was, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Luke 1:38


Ordinary people who, despite unbelievable circumstances, trusted and obeyed an extraordinary God.

The birth of Jesus IS good news of GREAT joy and is for    ALL people!

The Christmas story isn’t a story about wonderful people, but about ordinary people who listened to the counsel of the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR!


The Christmas story isn’t about mighty men but about ordinary men and women who believed in a MIGHTY GOD!


The Christmas story isn’t about perfect earthly families, but about belonging to an eternal family with an EVERLASTING FATHER!


The Christmas story isn’t about fearless people, but about people whose fear made them long for the PRINCE OF PEACE!

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”  Isaiah 9:6

The Christmas story, whether you find yourself feeling joyful or sad, is a story of hope.  An everlasting hope.  Jesus came to set all things right.  To restore what was destroyed.  To redeem what was lost. To give life where there is death.  To make healthy the sick.  He came for me.  He came for you. 


He came for you.


Do you believe that? 


Oh Father, would you help our unbelief. 

May this Christmas season be one that is marked by ordinary people trusting and obeying an extraordinary God.  May we begin to see in small, everyday ways, how deeply we are loved.  And may this understanding move us to trust Him fully.  Oh Father, let hope abound this Christmas season and beyond!