Doesn’t everyone want a happy home at Christmas? As we rush to finish shopping and baking and wrapping, did you know you have the better home?
This better home is your life in Christ. Click & Tweet!
You can experience this life in Christ at Christmas and all through the year even if you had a hard home life growing up. It’s just a little bit of heaven, a foreshadow of the best.
Happy Home?
My counselee “Suzie” balks at the word home. Many many years ago, her Christmas at her house was not cookies and hot chocolate, evergreens and gifts–or Jesus. Rather, her parent’s friends came over to party hard, just as they did every day. She felt unsafe, forgotten, and unloved.
As a kid, Suzie tried the booze that littered her house. By middle school, she looked for a safe place in one guy’s arms then another’s. That didn’t satisfy either. To forget her lack of a happy home, she drank and smoked dope and discovered a counterfeit happiness in “not feeling a thing.” Did you experience a difficult upbringing too? Where did you look for happiness? For hope?
We all seek a place to belong, a place of safety.
Home Came to Us
In a dream, an angel told Joseph, who was pledged to wed Mary, “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” The day of his birth is the wonderful day we celebrate Christmas.
Jesus made his home among us with a purpose. Counselor Paul Tripp says,
The whole redemptive story marches toward Immanuel, the Redeemer who would destroy sin’s dominion in our hearts by making our hearts the place where he, in his power, wisdom, and glory, would dwell.
When you find your home in Jesus, you have rest. You rest from striving to earn salvation. Sometimes it’s difficult to believe you don’t have to do more or be perfect to get on God’s good side, isn’t it?
Home = Jesus
In Jesus you find true belonging and safety. A warm place to be real and breathe deep.
1. Belonging
Home is the place where your belong and find your identity. In Christ, you are a new creation ( 2 Cor. 5:17) and a child of God (Rom. 8:15).
2. Safety
Your home protects your from the cold and keeps you safe. Jesus is your true place of safety. When Jesus conquered sin and death, nothing can separate us from him, not even death.
Romans 8:38-39 proclaims,
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
As you yearn for a happy home this Christmas, remember you have your true home in Jesus. You belong to him, he is your safe place.
Suzie embraced this truth in an unlikely place: a 12-step group. She walked in addicted to booze, met a new friend there — a young Christian woman who had a spare room for her to live — and left with hope. The friend told her about Jesus’ love for her. Suzie said, “Yes, Lord.”
This is the true happy home she yearned for. What about you? Are you searching for your true home–a place of safety and belonging? Feel free to contact me and share your story.
Merry Christmas!
