To Gaze on the Christ-Child

One silent night, over 2,000 years ago, God came to the earth as a baby. Immanuel. God with us. A baby who came to live so he could die, and would die so we could live.

This is the hope of Christmas.

This is the hope of Christ.

But when your heart is broken and bleeding and the sting of commercial holiday cheer intensifies it all, that hope may not bring much comfort. Not because the Christ-child is not enough, but because we push what is offered away.

The lights glisten on the tree. The stockings hang over the fire. Familiar tunes are sung about joy and being merry.

While the world is writing lists long with desires of the newest device and the seasons hottest trends, there’s only one thing you want for Christmas. The trouble is, it’s the one thing you can’t have.

Maybe your tree didn’t make it out of the box this year. Maybe your heart just couldn’t take faking Christmas cheer. Maybe your tree stands tall in your living room, but the absence of that one “Baby’s First Christmas”  ornament is glaringly obvious every time you walk by. Maybe you love Christmas and you are full of great joy, but every once in a while, you find yourself wondering what it would have been like to have one more person opening presents under the tree.

Maybe you feel nothing. Maybe you feel cold and numb. Maybe you feel none of this or all of it depending on the day, or the moment. Wherever you are today; whatever your heart feels, God is there. He is with you.

As Hope Moms, we know that this world is not our home. There is so much more that this! Our precious little ones wait for us in heaven, and one day, one glorious day, we will be with them for eternity. Don’t lose sight of this because of the date on the calendar. The truth is, we don’t miss our babies any more on Christmas than we do any other day. It only seems that way because we tend to focus on their absence on holidays.

But what if instead, we chose to focus on Christ? What if every time we started to think about our babies, we shifted our gaze to the Christ-child? What if when we thought of death, we thought of the One who defeated it? What if we chose joy What if we chose hope?

You see, God came down as a baby because He knew that we would never be able to get up to Him. He came to us. Today, He comes to you again. I challenge you this Christmas to focus on the baby in the manger as you think of the baby you are missing. After all, it is only through that Baby that you will hold your baby again, one day.

We would be honored to share your story as a Hope Mom on our blog. On Saturdays we feature Hope Moms’ stories in order to showcase God’s faithfulness even in the midst of such deep sorrow. If you would like to have your story shared on our blog for this purpose, learn more and submit here.