CHOOSE TO TRUST
[2-minute read]
With Christmas round the corner, a question returns each year: so what’s new about it? The usual biblical plot will be replayed with characters that both Christians and non-Christians are familiar with - Mary, Joseph, the Magi (the group of wise men), the shepherds and the owner of the barn where Jesus was born. Apart from living in the same epoch and appearing in the same bible story, what else did they have in common?
On close study, we can say that they were individuals who had a hard choice to make at different junctures of the Christmas story: they could either lean on their own instincts or trust God’s message that was revealed to them through angels and dreams.
Sure, the birth of Jesus was a momentous event but if we think that the Christmas narrative stops at the birth of an infant, we miss the entire point of His being born at all. In fact, the circumstances surrounding the birth of Christ was so uncertain, so precarious and so unfavourable that it was a story of great improbability from the beginning to the end. At the same time, if Christ’s birth had followed a path of least resistance; if it was a retelling of a natural human story; if there were no dilemmas in the plan, it would not be a story worth retelling every December.
Strikingly, none of the characters pulled out of God’s plot in order to avoid personal risks or social embarrassment. Instead, each one chose to trust God. As a result, they are now perennial reminders that God always has an upper hand in all situations to advance His story in our lives.
Therefore, Christmas is not just about Mary and Joseph, or the Magi or the shepherds that are depicted in the Christmas narrative. In fact, all believers today are de facto purveyors of the Christmas story that we create through our lives. Regardless of our health or circumstances, we continually build stories of faith, hope and love to share with the world.
As you prepare to celebrate Christmas with loved ones, consider how differently your experience of God would be in these alternative scenarios:
If you let challenges at the workplace hold you back from extending kindness to others.
If you had given up on praying when nothing made sense and all search for a diagnosis kept turning up empty.
If you only focuse on your healing and not on how you can still live a life of godly purpose.
If you had previously succumbed to strong feelings of despair, or believed that your life had lost all meaning.
If you had not prayed for your children to find God as they step into adulthood.
If you stop asking God for humility and a fresh perspective when facing disfavour from people at work.
If you excuse yourself from cultivating relationships because of an existing disability or because you are still battling an unknown medical condition.
If you still believe that dead ends and storms could keep God out of your life.
As we wrap up 2022 and prepare to step in 2023, here is a pointed reminder from Corrie Ten Boom: “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.”
This is a summary and reflection based on a virtual BIR Session held on 17 December 2022.
