Christmas 2025

Eugene Peterson has a quote that makes me think of this passage. In Traveling Light he says, “God was not out to get sinners so that he could make them good and sorry; he was out to get sinners so that he could make them good and joyful.” It makes me think of Simeon, who was “righteous and devout” not because of anything he did, but simply because he was “waiting for the consolation of Israel.” We say that Advent is a season of waiting, but waiting for what? Hasn’t Jesus already come? So we spend the season of waiting, celebrating the Jesus who has already come?

Of course that is not quite right. Jesus has already come, yes, but we wait for Him to come again. And this is what the Advent Season reminds us. The season’s darkness is the world’s darkness. We are still waiting for The Light to come.

And how will The Light find us? We will be sorry or joyful at the end of days? The answer depends on how we see ourselves in relationship to that Light. God is out to get us. Is he out to make us good and sorry, or good and joyful? Of course he wants to make us good and joyful! And guess what. That is the best reason for us to be joyful now. Even as the world’s darkness surrounds us like nighttime in deepest winter we can still have joy that The Light is coming.

Our lives in this world give us more than enough reason to feel down, scared and sorrowful. Simeon had reason for that as well. He lived in a time when Israel’s identity hung by a thread, completely dependent on Rome’s permission to exist. All it would take is one emperor’s word to bring down Jerusalem’s Temple. In fact, that is exactly what would happen less than 100 years after Simeon met Jesus. Yet even in the midst of that uncertainty, Simeon was able to say, “Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace.” The Light had come, and now there could be joy even in the midst of the world’s darkness.

And if Simeon had reason for joy, we have even more. What he accepted by faith, we can read in the pages of history. Jesus came, lived, died, rose again and ascended. All we have to wait for is Him to come again; we have it all besides. If our joy rests upon just a little faith, then it is completely unbreakable. So as we celebrate Christmas, let us remember that the reason for our joy is not any gift underneath that tree, but the true Gift that hung upon one.

Merry Christmas!