What If God Gave You a Strange Gift for Christmas?

Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

John 14:27 (ESV)

The season of Advent stirs up a multitude of emotions, and for many, it is accompanied by a lingering sense of disappointment. As we reflect on the past year, we may find ourselves grappling with unfulfilled hopes—in relationships, career, or personal struggles.

We had hoped our relationships would be different. Perhaps to have someone special to spend the holidays with only to find ourselves watching the Christmas Prince alone, again. We had hoped to be in a better financial place, that, this was the year the economy got better. We had hoped to be further along in our career, only to be told again, the timing was not quite right. We had hoped to be in our own house or to have a car that we didn’t need to plead the blood of Jesus over.

At a deeper level we may have hoped the depression we feel would be gone or at least less. That we would not have so many dark days. We had hoped to be free of anxiety, to have rest, that the panic attacks would stop. We had hoped to finally break free of a sin we couldn’t shake.

As the year comes to an end, we begin to think about all the things that didn’t happen.

We had hoped, we had hoped, we had hoped.

A lot of us are carrying a feeling right now and the feeling we are carrying into the end of the year is disappointment.

But maybe the real answer to disappointment is not getting what we wanted; but understanding life is hard.

What if this Christmas you were given a strange gift? The gift of disappointment.

That the disappointment was a cue; perhaps your hope is set on the wrong thing?

Hope always has an object.

It only exists connected to something else. Hope does not exist on its own, there is no such thing as hope for hope’s sake. Hope is always set on something.

Can we have a moment of transparency?

Something to sit in for a bit; do you feel like in 2025, God let you down?

Perhaps you have you felt this, or maybe in this moment it’s the first time, but it rings true, do you feel let down by Jesus?

We look at the Gospels and the promise of Advent, we read the Genesis text of a Son to be born who would crush the head of the serpent, and we wonder why so many first century Jews turned away from Jesus.

It was Jesus, God in the flesh, how could they not see it?

Because they were let down.

He didn’t rally an army and take down Rome. They were living under the oppressive shadow of Rome. Tracing through the Old Testament, when Israel was following God they had more land; when they were disobedient they had less land and here they were in God‘s promised land, but it was Rome‘s country. Jesus, well, He did nothing about it. He didn’t even lower taxes. The tax rate was 80% to 90%, the vast majority were living in slavery, and Jesus didn’t nothing about it. In fact, Jesus barely mentions politics (I wonder how He would do in the U.S. today?).

Their expectations were not met, nor did they honestly wrestle with their disappointment. Rather, if this was God’s kingdom, they were out.

Their hope was met with disappointment. Because their hope was not in a person, but in what the person would do for them.

Maybe this Christmas, disappointed is a gift, meant to draws us back to the object of our hope.

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If this reflection met you where you are, The Gift of Waiting was written for you.

It’s a 25-day Advent journey to rediscover hope, peace, and wonder when life doesn’t go as planned. Get your copy of The Gift of Waiting today.