Who hasn't struggled with those demoralizing seasons of dark sadness? Everyone suffers from grief and sorrow from time to time. There is hope this Christmas! The English traditional Christmas carol, "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" reminds us to remember Christ the Savior was born on Christmas day! Also known as "Tidings of Comfort and Joy”, the carol gained attention in the mid-18th century and was included in Charles Dickens’s classic, A Christmas Carol. When Scrooge heard the opening lines of the song, he had no patience for the song:
God rest you merry gentlemen
Let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior
Was born on Christmas Day
To save us from Satan’s pow’r
When we were gone astray
Have a tendency toward discouragement? There is comfort and joy. Experience seasonal depression? There is comfort and joy. Feel marginalized? There is comfort and joy. Burdened or experience guilt? There is comfort and joy. "Tidings of comfort and joy" are found in Christ the Savior. “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried, and rose again according to the Scriptures” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). There is hope in this broken world. We can find comfort and joy in a broken world:
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
Comfort and joy
Oh tidings of comfort and joy
God can forgive and comfort the weak and the desperate. He can forgive and comfort the discouraged and the despairing. He has forgiven sinners like me. He will forgive you if you turn to the Savior and his death and resurrection for sin in faith.
“God rest you merry, gentlemen.”
-Pastor Seboe