It’s a wonderful week to celebrate Jesus! Merry Christmas! One couple shared a not so merry Christmas story that somehow speaks of joy!
"The Christmas Tree That Tried to Kill Us": It was supposed to be the perfect Christmas. We had finally found “the one”—a glorious, seven-foot-tall tree fresh from the lot. My husband tied it to the roof of the car with confidence checking the knots twice. I had a bad feeling but it was Christmas I left it alone. On the drive home when the tree began to slide so I asked, “Are you sure it’s secure?” His short response, “It’s fine” didn’t feel very much like Christmas cheer.
When we arrived at home, the tree was hanging off the car and had been dragging for some time. We wrestled it inside placing the barren road rash side to the wall. As we propped it up it refused to stand straight. We refused to give in so we got out the ornaments and started decorating. Nearing the conclusion of our decorating project the weight of the décor’ was more than the leaning angle could handle. In what seemed like a slow-motion movie it came crashing down, ornaments shattering all over the living room.
We propped it back up with fishing line tied to the curtain rod. It wasn’t pretty, but it was up. With a sense of dissatisfied satisfaction, we were admiring our “masterpiece” in the spirit of Christmas when, no kidding, the power went out. We spent the rest of the evening in the glow of emergency candles, eating slightly burnt cookies, and laughing until we cried.
It wasn’t the Christmas we planned, but it was definitely one we’ll never forget. I’d like to remind you all that Christmas doesn’t have to be perfect to be memorable. Sometimes, the best stories are the ones that start with a tree trying to kill you.
Christmas is NOT about pretending everything is perfect. It’s about the arrival of Jesus, Emmanuel, “God with us,” who entered a broken world to bring healing, hope, and restoration to fallen broken people. So today we’re talking about DRAMA, TRAUMA AND MERRY CHRISTMAS. All in the CONTEXT OF LOVE!
THE CONTEXT OF LOVE
(Ephesians 5:22-6:9)
For God so loved the world that He sent his only son to introduce the world the Kingdom of God, or A CONTEXT OF LOVE! When someone loves you well, it unlocks something really healthy in your heart, in your mind and in that relationship.
There is nothing more painful than two selfish people in a relationship. There is nothing more beautiful than two servants in love. Children feel good when they see their parents loving each other well and they don’t even know why. Something within the heart of the child seems to be awakened in the CONTEXT OF LOVE.
As we’ve been studying the book of Ephesians, we’ve actually been reading verses that point to the context of love.
Ephesians 5:2 walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God. ESV
Jesus came to model this life-giving love that produces an atmosphere where things are awakened within us. In the absence of love complicated equations abound.
Jesus came to address the trauma and brokenness of men, women and children! He wants to do that today. Because the context of our lives is a broken, fallen world filled with drama and trauma it is all too easy to process right things the wrong way.
What comes to mind when you hear:
Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. ESV
One guy asked God for a wife that would submit to her husband. God was true to his prayer and gave him a wife that submits receipts, invoices, complaints, car maintenance requests, house cleaning requests, maintenance requests, house cleaning requests. When you pray to the Lord, be specific in prayers.
Notice the context of love. We concluded last week on the verse just before this,21, that says
Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. ESV
Then we see the verse following this:
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her ESV
All of this is in the context of love. When your experience has been something other than love, perhaps even manipulation or cruelty then unhealthy reactions are inevitable. The good news is that you can be healed and restored even if you’ve been deeply wounded.
We have to be so careful with what’s going in our hearts when talking about these kinds of things. The thought that this is degrading, demeaning and demoralizing to women creeps into our hearts so easily.
The cultural narrative is constantly asking us, “Did God really say?” Does this apply in today’s day and age? I’m married to one of the strongest women I’ve ever met in my life. In our 34 years of marriage, we’ve had only three instances where we needed to make a life-altering decision that we couldn’t agree on. We prayed. We fasted and prayed. We sought wise counsel and prayed some more. When we exhausted every effort to come to a unified conclusion I said, “I’m willing to answer to God for this decision, and I’m asking you to walk with me wholeheartedly supporting me and graciously loving me even if it turns out I was wrong.”
Ephesians 5:28-33 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. ESV
Jesus came to address the trauma and brokenness of men, women and children!
Ephesians 6:1-9 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), 3 “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” 4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. ESV
Men and women are not the same. Men and women are similarly powerful, but distinctly different.
You need a mom and a dad, and both are absolutely necessary. Jesus not only came to address our trauma, but he gave us to the church to help with parental deficiency.
Ephesians 6:5-6 Bondservants, obey your earthly masters with fear and trembling, with a sincere heart, as you would Christ, 6 not by the way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but as bondservants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart. 7 rendering service with a good will as to the Lord and not to man. ESV (I’ve found it to be helpful to apply this text in the context of boss and worker.
Paul wasn’t endorsing slavery. He was introducing countercultural guidelines to make a broken situation better.)
The story of Christmas is one of God stepping into our brokenness and into our pain, not avoiding it. He’s in our drama. He’s in our trauma. Merry Christmas!
How has Christmas felt heavy or challenging for you this year?
What does it mean to you that Jesus is “God with us” in every season, even in pain?
GP2RL: Consider how you can offer authentic love and hope to someone who may be silently struggling this Christmas season.