Happy Sunday everyone! This post is the first December Sunday Encouragement post…so naturally, it has to be about Christmas!

We all know that Christmas is a HUGE thing all around the world. And most of us know the origin is not very widely celebrated.

But Christmas is probably one of the most stressful seasons of the year ever. We have shopping, decorating, keeping the dog/cat from eating decorations, having family over, visiting family, and buying presents for Aunt Marge who is allergic to 27 foods and only like the color mauve otherwise she screams at you for not knowing her well enough.

Not to mention actually finding time to just enjoy Christmas. It’s hard, right? As much as Christmas is about ‘peace’ and ‘joy’, it’s hard to actually receive peace and joy in the busy seasons.

But peace is not just a part of Christmas, it is the core meaning and reason for Christmas.

When we read the Gospel and Christmas story in the Bible, we hear so many things about ‘peace’ and ‘joy’ in it!

All throughout the book of Luke (where most of Jesus’ birth is recorded), when an angel goes to Mary, he says, “Do not be afraid.” When an angel goes to Joseph, he says, “Do not be afraid.” When an angel tells the shepherds about Jesus, he says, “Do not be afraid.”

From the beginning, Jesus’ life story is not about being afraid, and neither is his mission.

We see that peace is a part of what God gives us when we join him as sons and daughters in Christ. It’s a beautiful gift—he doesn’t say, “Do this and then I’ll give you peace, but only if you do everything I say.” He says, “I will give you peace, but sometimes the road to peace is not peaceful.”

We expect the road to peace to be peaceful, but that is not peace. It’s a journey.

When the angels say, “Do not be afraid,” it’s not because they are just so gorgeous that you will die from looking at them. It’s because (according to Revelation 4:6-8), they might actually be terrifying creatures. And it makes sense! These are warriors of the Lord Most High! They’re not cuddly cherubs, as much as we like to picture them that way.

So the angels are saying, “Do not be afraid, we are here to bring you GOOD NEWS.” And that good news is that a Savior is born and he is here to give you a new life. Sounds good to me, right?

In conclusion: YOU have a chance at receiving peace during this crazy season! Jesus has peace for you, and sometimes it comes in ways you don’t expect.

Thanks for reading and I hope you all have a great Sunday!
~Willow

Reminder: the deadline for submitting your snippets for the Christmas competition is December 11th!

If you have any prayer requests and would like prayer, don’t hesitate to fill out this prayer request form or contact me. I’d love to keep you in my prayers!