O Come O Come Emmanuel.

Lamentations 3:18, 21-24

Then I thought, "My future is lost as well as my hope from the Lord. .Yet I call this to mind and therefore I have hope. Because of the Lord's faithful love, we do not perish, for his mercies never end. They are new every morning and great is your faithfulness. I say the Lord is my portion therefore I will put my hope in him".

I opened up to this passage this morning and the words leapt off the page at me and pierced my heart. No better words could be spoken to me on this day. I am a person who remembers dates and anniversaries better than most. I find dates to be meaningful and tend to look back in nostalgia at certain dates in my life. I just adore the "On this day" feature on facebook as it allows me to go back in time and see what was going on in my life on this exact day up to 11 years ago! I can barely remember what I was doing last week at this time let alone years and years ago. It always gives me a chuckle to see what I thought was so important to tell the internet world at certain times in my life. It also reminds me of memories both good and bad that shaped who I am today. So without fail every morning I wake up and check that app and take a short trip back to the past. Today there was no need for that because today is one of those days that changed my life forever. (Out of privacy and respect for my family I will spare the details if you aren't already privy to them). I will say that one year ago today, everything I knew and loved came crashing to the ground  and shattered in a million pieces. The life I had known was over in an instant. My thoughts and words were those of Lamentation 3:18- "My future is lost, as well as my hope from the Lord." I remember walking outside in the cold in the wee hours of the morning, weeping and choking out very similar words to a friend on the phone. I could not see any light anywhere in my situation.  There was no hope to be found as I was desperately seeking for it in the darkness.  I tried grasping for some sort of hope, but it was slipping through my fingers as quickly as sand. I could almost hear Satan just laughing in my ear. He was loving every minute of this. He certainly looked like he was winning and God was sitting back letting him do so. I couldn't begin to imagine how I would ever make it through that day let alone to today. Surviving this literally seemed impossible to me. I couldn't eat or sleep. I could barely breathe. It was so incredibly heavy. I don't say these things to be dramatic or to make you feel sorry for me. I say them because it is so important to understand the depths of my pain and grief, to be able to really give glory to God for where I am today. We must know the darkness before we can appreciate the light.

So I made it. Here I am one year later. Through all the heartache and loss, I can finally see the light. Its there and truly it's been there the entire time. Hope is now something that can be grasped. That light and that hope is Jesus, our Emmanuel- God With Us. Last Christmas, when I could barely get out a prayer, I would just repeat over and over "Emmanuel, God With us, Emmanuel- God with us.". It was a truth that I needed to cling to. It was the same truth I clung to in 2012 as I laid bloodied and bruised in an ambulance. It was the same truth I declared  from our church pulpit on a Sunday morning in December 2014, standing with my husband by my side and It's the same truth I clung  to today as I sat alone in a lawyer's office. I know  that Jesus  has walked every step of the way with me. He knows the depths of my heart and has entered into the pain for me. He has seen all the ugliness, the doubting, the anxiety, fear, the harsh words, all of it and yet his mercies  never end.  He offers such extravagant grace in such impossible situations. I don't know how many times I have heard the phrase this year " I could never go through what you're going through." Well the truth is that yes you could. We all can, because we have direct access to the one who holds all things together even when everything is falling apart. I am grateful that we have a God who cares, and not only that, but makes all things new. I could never begin to predict what 2018 will bring.  The truth is that more suffering may be headed my way, but I do know that there is always joy to be found if we keep seeking for it. The Gospel gives me hope that beauty is just around the corner. 

So I hope you find encouragement this holiday season if you are in a place where you cannot see the light anywhere you look. I know the feeling well. In fact, there are many days for me where it slips away and out of sight still. The holiday season can be such a painful time for those who are suffering. For me, Thanksgiving was incredibly tough. I was flooded with painful memories and reminded of all the loss I have experienced this year. To be real, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to peel myself off the floor to be able to celebrate this holiday at all. I did. Although I could see all the things I was grateful for, the grief was incredibly real. You know what, I think that's okay. However, I have found that if I can manage to lift my eyes off of my circumstances and onto Jesus, I  find the hope I am looking for. I remember friends and family telling me last year "It'll get better" and guess what, it did! It's important to note that my circumstances didn't change at all. In fact all my worst fears of where life could go happened anyway. There has yet to be resolution to my story and in fact I am walking straight into another difficult season as I write this. So often we try to push past the suffering and pray to get to the other side as quickly as possible, when in reality God wants us to lean into him and use this pain as a way to realize how sufficient he truly is. I am learning this daily. So on those days, where it feels like you won't make it through whatever it is you're going through, remember you will not perish because God is faithful always. He is faithful no matter what, in both the triumph and the tragedy. Christmas is the perfect time to call this to mind, as we are literally celebrating the fact that God loves us so much he became flesh and dwelt among us. He has experienced in the flesh, the pain of loss, grief and intense sorrow. Hebrew 1:3 says " The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by the power of His word. This verse is a beautiful encouragement to me. So as I sit by the the lights of  my Christmas tree and listen to the carols sing of that divine night when God displayed his love for us. I will call to mind, the mercies and faithfulness of our great God. I will call to mind that Jesus is our Emmanuel and that's the greatest hope we could ever have. "O Come O Come Emmanuel, Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel shall come to thee O Israel. "