This year has not gone the way I expected it to go. I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way. We’ve lost more than a few loved ones this year. When 2025 started, I never expected to be the senior pastor by the end of it. It makes it even harder given the circumstances that led to me taking the position. We’ve all had to go through many adjustments this year. It’s been hard on many, if not all of us. I was honestly talking to someone a few weeks ago and told them that I’m ready for this year to be over, and for it to be 2026. Maybe you feel the same way. But in these few short pages, I hope to offer you a chance to take a breath, and have some peace.
During times like this, where life isn’t what I expected it to look like, I’m grateful for the truth of God’s word. When you open the pages of the Bible, you don’t find people living great lives. You find people who deal with the same struggles we do. But time and time again, it’s not even about the person going through the struggle. It’s about a God who is present in the struggle. Jesus made the claim that whoever obeys his teaching is like a man who has built his house on the rock, giving it a firm foundation for when the rains come. Rains come on all people, regardless of how much money you have, regardless of how well you follow God, regardless of any other factor you want to come up with. Life is hard because the curse of sin has broken what God had made good.
God used Moses to free Israel. God freed Israel from Egypt through the Red Sea. God provided for Israel in the wilderness. I could fill up quite a few pages with examples from the Bible of God’s goodness, and it’s never because of the goodness of humanity. It’s just who God is. He is good. Even when life is bad, God is good, and that won’t change. So when we go through seasons like we’ve been through this year, don’t forget that God is still good, and still has a plan for redemption and better days ahead.
In a few weeks, we will celebrate Christmas. It’s one of the greatest displays of love in history. God himself came down to redeem humanity from sin. We know the story well, yet it never gets old. Israel themselves were going through a very hard time in their history. They hadn’t had a prophet in 400 years. They’d been passed from one empire to another during most of that time, and it had been Rome since 67 BC. I can only imagine the prayers that were being prayed by Jews during that time, as they still awaited a promised Messiah. After all, many of the prophecies we read about Jesus’ birth, be it in Isaiah, Micah, or elsewhere, were written as far as 600 years before Jesus’ birth. Yet nothing had happened… Until one day.
God sent Gabriel to Nazareth, to a virgin named Mary, and announced the greatest news ever. The Messiah was coming! Things were going to be okay! While the Christmas story has its own share of adversity, the Prince of Peace was finally born on a star-studded night with an angel choir. But Jesus didn’t come just to put on a show at his birth. He came to give hope, salvation, and redemption to all of us who need it. He came to shift our focus to God’s kingdom. He came to show us a love that can’t be shaken. And He came to bring peace to a broken world.
And I love that of all the people God could have invited to Jesus’ birth, it was shepherds. He could have invited the Pharisees or Sadducees, or King Herod, or literally anyone. But he chose to specifically invite shepherds. Why? Because God is described as a shepherd more often than anything else in the Old Testament. Because if anyone was going to understand a newborn in swaddling clothes, it was the shepherds outside Bethlehem. And perhaps most importantly, because it was a reminder to all of Israel that God was still in charge. He invites the shepherds to show the people that God was still there and still working, and things were going to be okay because the God of the universe hadn’t lost sight of His chosen people.
So yes, life has been hard. 2025 didn’t go the way we planned it. But Jesus still wants to bring peace and to make all things new. He still has a plan for us for 2026. Just as Moses, David, Joshua, and so many others in the Bible found out, it’ll be okay. There’s life after hardship. There’s even goodness that can come from hardship. While I don’t know what 2026 will look like for RCC, we can rest assured that God will lead us well. It’s what He does. Our job is simply to follow. So if things get hard again, let’s not forget the truth of God’s Word. He is with us in the hardship. He loves us in hardship. He leads us through hardship. He is the good shepherd. Merry Christmas.
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. 2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 And everyone went to their own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. 5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. 6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, 7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told. -Luke 2:1-20 (NIV)
