A Thrill of Hope—Blog - Acts Two Fellowship — Christian Fellowship at UC Berkeley | Christian Fellowship on the UC Berkeley Campus | Student Club Group at Berkeley | Acts Two Fellowship — Christian Fellowship at UC Berkeley (a2f)

I have a 7 year old half sister. She loves math, slime, monkey bars, and seafood. She asks many questions, most of which I don’t have very satisfying answers for (“Why is Mars so far from the sun? Why do I need to wait until the 25th to open my presents?”). Our 16 year age difference is something that’s never felt too significant until these past few days, as I’ve been home and trying to keep up with her, at times at a loss how to relate to her (I’ve already Googled, “What do 7 year old girls like to talk about?”...probably need to spend more time with kids, haha). Still, I try, even if that means reaching far back into memories of Barbies dolls and playground drama, or playing Legos and games that may otherwise be slightly embarrassing for other recent grads, because I love her and want to connect with her.

One of the amazing claims of the Christmas story is that God himself did this for us—that the good news for us this season is that God really is our Immanuel, “God with us”. Not just “with us” in a vague, spiritual sense, but “with us” in that the creator God himself became robed in the flesh that he created, breaking in to Earth as an infant, a babbling baby. He wasn’t too good or knowledgeable or holy for humanity, but he descended down, down, down into the most vulnerable, powerless form...for…what? 1 John 4:9-10 says, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” God loves us so much that, at the cost of giving up his own power, he made a way to relate to us by sending his son Jesus.

And yet this story can still seem like wishful thinking, easy to criticize and hard to believe. Data from the Pew Research Center shows 4 in 10 Millennials consider themselves religious “nones”, and that the fastest growing “religious” population in America are the “nones” — people who don’t consider themselves affiliated to any particular religion or belief. I look back at 2019 and there’s a lot to be cynical about, to be honest: our dying planet, divided governments, media brainwashing, rising anxiety and depression. Adding to that list are my own personal shortcomings, things I failed to learn, people I hurt and didn’t make time for...enough disappointment that I can understand why people could ask, “Where is your ‘God’ in all of this?”

Perhaps the reason so many seem content to find “god” elsewhere, checking “none”, turning to some good social cause or new positive mindset, is because a personal God, much less the Christian God, just seems like the stuff of fairytales. We live in a world riddled with pain and questions...if there is a God, does he at all care?

But the crazy thing about the Christmas story is the answer that yes, God cares; in fact, he loves, in what C.S. Lewis called “the deepest, most tragic, most inexorable sense.” The surprising news for all of us is that God will meet you and I in the midst of—because of—the messiness of our world. All our anxieties, fear of death, shame, crippling insecurity...God “gets” all of it; he didn’t stand idle and distant in the comforts of heaven, but went head-first and all-in to the human experience, becoming human, leaning in to our pains. And he promised that we wouldn’t be left to just “suck it up and be strong”, but that we can take comfort in the fact that God really is Immanuel—”God with us”. Because God wasn’t just born, he also died and rose again, so that now we can relate—no hiding, no posturing, in complete freedom—with God.

Ultimately, if Christmas is true, it means that there’s a bigger story that goes beyond the way things pan out for us in this life. For better or worse, God loves us, now and into eternity. That’s truly good, thrilling news for a weary world…and I hope this news can be personally refreshing for you, too.

Merry Christmas!