As a young single mom, I can remember being donated a handful of used toys from another family in town on Christmas Eve. I stayed up for several hours after my small children had gone to bed, scrubbing each one to ensure it looked like new. While I was grateful for the generosity of that family, I couldn’t help feeling more than a little sorry for myself (and my children) as I sat painfully aware of my loneliness and lack.
Needing Healing
That Christmas was more than 25 years ago. I learned much in the years that followed, as a single mom, and eventually as a married one. And for almost two decades now, I have used what I learned to serve on the front lines of ministry to single moms across the U.S. by pouring out my heart, giving sweat equity, and offering prayer and wise counsel in hopes that every mom would know her value in Christ Jesus. And I do it because I know the Lord called me to do it and because I won’t forget the many Christmases I spent parenting alone. I remember the broken days... the days of overwhelm… the days of stress. The days of loneliness. I remember the hard days. There were many hard days. To be very honest with you, I spent a lot of those days mad, and stressed, and bitter, and whiny. I was often overwhelmed, exhausted, depressed, anxious, worried, confused, and even suicidal at one point. I spent a lot of time frustrated with my life, but I didn’t really know what to do about it. And if I’m being really honest...those days didn’t end when I was no longer a single mom. They didn’t end when my children were no longer small toddlers. No, it took years of learning what the Lord was doing that Christmas.
As I type each word today, I reflect on what the Lord has done in my life and what He’s brought me out of. I think of the pain and disappointments, the years of plenty and the years of little. I think of the hard years of marriage, the good ones, and the ones when there was no marriage at all. I think of the hard years of parenting and the easy ones. I think of the years with a house full of family and friends...and the years when loved ones had passed on. And despite it all, I can’t help but celebrate the holiday season. It is the very goodness of God in my life that compels me to honor the birth of our risen Savior. I didn’t understand, until many years later, that the baby we celebrate – this baby Jesus – Brought a blessing to our lives. He brought the blessing of our redemption, our joy, our salvation, and our rescue. And, oh, how I know that some of you who read today are desperate for joy again.
Sadly, the commercialized Christmas that most of us are familiar with – the one they advertise on television - is that of filling gifts beneath a tree that we often can’t afford. That type of Christmas often promotes greediness, discontentment, complaining, and almost nothing that the Lord promotes. And it leaves us more empty, weighted, and burdened, focusing on what we don’t have. Most of us do not celebrate the holiday season with a heart posture surrendered to the King, understanding that He sent this baby to pay a high price for us. When I think about that baby and what He did in my life to move me from broken down and torn up to redeemed, transformed, and renewed, I can’t help but get excited. That baby brought blessings to my life. And that baby paid for blessings for you, too!
Scripture teaches that the baby we celebrate during this holiday season eventually grew up. He walked into a temple and proclaimed that the prophecy of Isaiah had just been fulfilled. He said it this way in Luke 4:18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
What did Jesus mean in the temple that day, when He proclaimed that the prophecy from Isaiah had just been fulfilled? What did He bring? He brought the blessing of His Father. The Creator of Heaven and Earth, who created you, said this in Matthew 3:17: “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” God put his stamp of approval on his Son and that Son paid for you and me to stop limping through life – beat up and confused – and to walk in a joy-filled, abundant, exciting life of strength.
Joy
Do you feel joyful today? Do you feel free? Do you feel full of strength? That’s what the holiday season is supposed to be about, and that’s what I eventually had to learn. Sitting alone scrubbing toys that night was never about the toys! It was always about the baby! When I had the revelation of what my Jesus brought into my life, everything changed. What were some of the things He brought? Well, Jesus brought restoration. He paid a high price, so you and I could be restored to our Heavenly Father, and if we choose Him, we choose to live a restored life – a life of knowing that we will one day rest in heaven, a life that is free, hope-filled, and abundant with joy and peace.
Psalm 71:20-21 declares, "Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again; from the depths of the earth you will again bring me up.”
When I fully surrendered to the Lord and understood that He could transform the depths of my suffering and restore me, everything changed for me. And today, as I write, I proclaim to you that I am restored completely. The Lord gave me back the years of tears and lack, confusion, and pain. He gave me more than I could have thought or imagined when I decided to stop attempting to control my own life (or at least pieces of it).
Peace
Another blessing that baby brought was peace. I was so very desperate for peace during that time of my life. Life had been filled with chaos and confusion. I had lived with anxious thoughts and attempted to control everything around me for years. But in John 14:27, Jesus said, “I am leaving you with a gift – a gift of peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.” To be clear, it doesn’t mean that there won’t be storms all around us. We will still have challenges. But when we surrender fully to Jesus, recognizing He paid a price so we could sit calmly in our boat even when storms rage, we can know the peace that makes no sense to the world.
Jesus also brought my healing. Isaiah 53:5 tells us that by Jesus’ stripes, we are healed. He brought healing to the physical body, as we read about throughout the Gospels, and He brought healing to many hearts. The woman at the well suffered for years with a broken heart, as she jumped from man to man to try to fix it. The brokenheartedness that I suffered was once so heavy I could barely breathe, but my Jesus healed it. I spent years limping through life with a broken heart – making choices from that broken heart. I didn’t understand the wound care that my Jesus provided. The more I yearned for and sat in His presence, the more I received healing from Him. The Lord bottles every tear and is near to the broken-hearted. I come before you today completely healed of childhood trauma, completely healed of broken relationships, completely healed from victimhood mentalities, and bleeding wounds. And the Lord can do the same for you. You may rest on Him today, as you heal.
Hope
And finally, Jesus brought hope. He’s the hope of the world. As a girl who once sat suicidal on a bathroom floor as a young single mom, I know what it's like to have lost all hope. I know what it’s like to have Satan whisper in your ear over and again, "Do it. No one will care anyway. No one wants you around anyway. It’ll never get any better than this." But my Jesus, He changed everything. He brought hope into my life beyond a temporary relief. He brought hope that completely shifted my perspective. But here’s what it required of me. It took my yes and my full surrender.
Jesus is our only hope. He’s the hope of the world sent a long time ago. He is why we celebrate today – not gifts and parties and fancy desserts. Some of you lost hope because you put it in a job, a relationship, a bank account, or your children’s performance. But the Lord is calling you into real intimacy with Him this holiday season. However, it’s important that you understand that it will cost you something. I’ve heard many say, “Salvation costs you nothing, salvation is free.” I know what the sentiment is and understand it, but I respectfully disagree. Salvation – true intimacy and a real walk with Jesus – oh, that costs you your life. When we accept Jesus, we obey His commands. We live according to His Word. We surrender and lay down our lives. They are no longer our own. But when we accept Him fully, we also get all the blessings – every blessing that that baby brought a long time ago is ours. And that is worth it all.
Photo Credit: ©Getty Images/Mark Wilson/Staff
Jennifer Maggio is a mom to three, wife to Jeff, and founder of the national nonprofit, The Life of a Single Mom Ministries. She is author to four books, including The Church and the Single Mom. She was named one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in America by Dr. John Maxwell in 2017 and 2015 and has appeared in hundreds of media venues, including The New York Times, Family Talk Radio with Dr. James Dobson, Joni and Friends, and many others.
