A Blue Christmas

HoHum:

“Blue Christmas” is one of the all time holiday classics each year during Christmas time. The heartbreaking song captures how lonely the season can be without the one we love, which is probably why it’s been a staple for over 70 years. The song was written in 1948. The most famous version was by Elvis Presley and released in November 1964. “I’ll have a blue Christmas without you. I’ll be so blue just thinking about you. Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree, won’t be the same dear, if you’re not here with me. And when those blue snowflakes start falling. That’s when those blue memories start calling. You’ll be doing all right, with your Christmas of white, but I’ll have a blue, blue, blue Christmas.”

WBTU:

I think we need to start this most wonderful time of the year talking about what makes us blue. For our family it is loss. The loss of PawPaw. He died on July 1, 2021. Last year the Christmas holiday was a blur. A few weeks before we were told that Crystal got the job as Resident Director of Johnson Hall so we were in the midst of packing and closing things out in Cincinnati. Don’t get me wrong, we celebrated as a family on that day but after that we were back at it. Have more time for reflection this year. While working in hospice, one year I did a talk on Surviving the Holidays for the bereaved. Always looking at grief and bereavement material and I was shocked one day when I heard a trusted source say that we cannot bring comfort to those who have experienced loss. What? What is the point of trying to put all of these talks together, going over the details, setting up the room to encourage participation, what was that person talking about? Give an explanation in a few minutes. Let’s read Isaiah 40:1-2

C.S. Lewis wrote in Mere Christianity, “Comfort is the one thing you cannot get by looking for it. It if look for truth, you may find comfort in the end. If you look for comfort, you will get neither comfort nor truth- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair.” The word comfort in Isaiah 40 is a little misleading in contemporary English. When we think of comfort, we think of sitting on a beach watching the waves and enjoying our favorite drink or if it is winter we see ourselves sitting in a lazy boy recliner before a roaring fire. There is a comforter spread over us while we sip hot coco and read a book. We think of being comfortable. To bring comfort to someone is to take away their pain and make them feel better. Here is the kicker with grief and loss, we cannot take away another’s emotional suffering or make them feel better about their loss. That is the work of God. The reason we are not comforted in our trials is because we often seek comfort from other sources than God himself. God comforts us through revealing to us who He really is.

In Isaiah 40, God desires to comfort His people. In the first 39 chapters of Isaiah the message is anything but comforting. It is a message of judgement against nations, kingdoms, cities and people. However, in chapter 40 we have a change in the focus. Now it is to comfort God’s people after their trials, testings and losses.

Thesis: Our comfort from God is based on... (from Isaiah 40:1-2)

For instances:

I. Upon a relationship with God himself. Vs. 1

It is the Lord’s desire to comfort His people.

He brings comfort and He says this twice for emphasis.

He calls them “My people”; there is no comfort for those who are not His. Oh, people try but “the help of man is worthless.” Psalms 60:11, NIV.

He commits himself to us with the phrase, “Says your God.” Here we see the basis for God’s comfort in our relationship to Him and His to us! “My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.” Psalms 119:50, NIV.

It is His design to use His servants to bring God’s comfort

God wants to use us to bring His comfort to His people; He gave this command to Isaiah.

I thought we cannot bring comfort to people. True, but look at these verses. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4, NIV. This all comes from God. Need to share the Lord from whence the comfort comes.