In all the years Christmas has been celebrated in recognition of Jesus’s birth, how many of us have actually considered the climate during that time? What had really gone on in the land? Surely, Jesus our Savior, being born was a joyful and spectacular happening! Never a birth like His! A virgin birth! Miraculous! The Savior was born and we celebrate Him!

Are you aware during the time approaching Jesus’s birth mothers and fathers were losing their male children two years old and under at the hand of Herod for the purpose of trying to find and kill Jesus? Grief was rampant throughout the land… “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they were not” (Mathew 2:18).

Oh, Lord, our God, how desperately the land needed hope, comfort, joy, and salvation! And with the birth of Jesus, that’s what God provided. Though there was no room for Him in the Inn, He changed the climate of that time. Through Jesus, God gave the world hope, joy, peace, comfort. So let’s be encouraged this season to also know Jesus can cause the climate to change in our homes; from hopelessness to hope, confusion to peace, from sadness to gladness, from grief to gratefulness.

As many have mentioned, though our land is still grieving in many ways from the affects of a deadly pandemic, political upheaval, economic instability, mental strain, and civil unrest, we can still find hope and spiritual rest in Jesus. Let us put all our trust in Him, for Jesus still is the reason why we celebrate “Him” this season.

“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7 ESV).

Please pray with me: Dear Lord, I will keep on thanking you for being the changing force in my life and in my home, in Jesus name amen.

With love and gratitude, may the blessings of the Lord be with you always. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Books available:

• Something to Thank About from A to Z, xulonpress.com, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com

• Sacred and Intimate Lives of Husbands and Wives, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com

By Hertistine Washington / keeponthanking.com