Home > Christmas Blog 2024-2025

The Promise of Christmas Isn’t Over

December 29, 2024

Isaiah 61:10-62:3 |Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7 |John 1:1-18| Psalm 147

I have always loved the visuals depicted in the Book of Isaiah. No matter what translation you read, you are fully transported into Isaiah’s world. Using a mixture of environmental, cultural and religious symbols, Isaiah paints a striking picture of what God’s salvation brings.

Like Isaiah’s dazzling use of language, many of us get caught up in the glitter and excitement of the Christmas season. Families make trips to see holiday lights, decorate their own houses with thousands of colored bulbs, tinsel and trees, and gather to watch holiday movies filmed in romantic country villages where there is always just the right amount of snow and hot chocolate. There is magic in the season. And for Christians, there is the excitement and anticipation of Christ’s birth and with it, a sense of hope and joy.

Our reading from Isaiah also works to dazzle the reader. He speaks of a bridegroom decked with a garland and a bride adorned with jewels. Earth bringing forth new shoots and a garden full of plants just breaking the surface of the soil. You can feel the expectation and excitement of what is to come.

But as our reading continues, we see the tenor change. While the language is still illustrative, it is commanding:

“For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
Until her vindication shines out like the dawn,
And her salvation like a burning torch”

After the beauty of God’s salvation Isaiah reminds us that the expectation of God’s promise does not happen without us. In the birth of Christ, we witness our own salvation, but it is one that still requires action. God tasks us to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth by shining the torch of salvation and righteousness. We cannot keep it hidden. Only then will we be, “a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord” and to truly live into the promise that is Christ’s birth.

Now that Christmas Day has come and gone, the anticipation is over and the lights are coming down, that does not mean that the hope has ended. It has simply moved from expectancy to action. Christ’s birth is not just a celebration, it is God’s call on us to proclaim the good news through our words and actions.

As the Christmas lights come down, remember that it is now our role to bring God’s promise to the world and shine out like the dawn.

Victoria Strang