With all the Christmas cheer, occasions, fun and excitement, how we wish that all things could just work out fine by the time December arrives.
But that's not always the case. The problem with troubles and trials is that they can come at any season and at any time.
Last Christmas had to be one of the toughest for my family. Only weeks before Christmas, I lost my business and almost 70 percent of our household income as well after we use a big sum of our savings to purchase a house. I thought, "Lord, why me and why Christmas of all times of the year?"
Maybe you're facing a tough and challenging time this Christmas season as well. Maybe you're wishing that it didn't have to happen at this time. Maybe you lost a loved one, ruined a relationship, had trouble with money or whatever that trial might be. And we wish that the holiday could just be started with the cheer of Christmas.
We don't always recognise it, but the Christmas story was one that started off on a sour note as well. A young lady and a man getting ready for marriage have an unexpected child in the middle of a stable — what could get tougher than that? But in all the trials and challenges, there was cause for celebration. That's because the cause for celebration was not the absence of trials, but the presence of a saviour.
Isaiah 9:6 sets for us the greatest cause of cheer for this season and any other season: "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."
The reality about trials is that they are a constant and can happen at any time.
But there is a greater constant that prevails in our life. That constant is Jesus Christ. He came once and for all to be born humbly in a manger and departed hung on a cross only to return glorified as proof that our victory is final and established.
Christmas might be a great time to have all the money for celebrations and all the time without worries and fears — but not because we are without problems. Truth be told, we all face trials of some kind and magnitude.
But the cause of Christmas cheer is that we all face these trials together and that we are not alone. Behind all of this is a God who reigns and establishes His peace and dominion on earth as it is in heaven.
