Rejoicing in Refinement at Christmastime

I made it to one of my favorite Christmas traditions—a live performance of Handel’s Messiah—once again this last weekend. “Let’s start that all over again,” someone said to me as it concluded, expressing disappointment that it was over already.

I couldn’t agree more. Every year, I tell myself that I should just buy two tickets so I can attend on back-to-back nights!

What is it about Handel’s Messiah that I love so much? Perhaps it is the music. Perhaps it is the sacred atmosphere. Or perhaps it’s just the peaceful opportunity the performance provides to sit and reflect on the full scope of the Christmas story—beyond just the babe in the manger, the angels, and the virgin birth.

What I find fascinating about Handel’s Messiah is that a different part often hits me each year—often dependent upon what I’ve been through in my own life in the preceding months. This year, the opening parts which highlight the prophecies about the coming of the Messiah were the ones that had me jotting down a few notes, particularly the prophecy from Isaiah 40:1-5:

Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned.

The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness; prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

Every valley shall be exalted, and ev’ry mountain and hill made low; the crooked straight and the rough places plain.

And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

The first few verses are full of melancholy, but the latter ones grow in excitement, finally culminating in the soaring chorus about the glory of the Lord being revealed:

This passage is both poetic and mysterious, but at the heart is a clear message: God smooths the way—in the small daily aspects of our lives, or the big, earth-shattering occurrences like the coming of the Messiah—to accomplish His purposes. And in doing so He brings glory not to us, but to Himself.

Such smoothing isn’t always an easy thing. In fact, it often means that our rough edges get worn away in the process, something which Handel’s Messiah gives a nod to a few songs later when it says:

“And He shall purify the sons of Levi, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.”

That smoothing of our rough edges—that purifying of our hearts, our actions, and our attitudes—is often a painful process. None of us like hard things. No one wants to be hurt or experience pain. Nobody purposefully chooses to go through trials and suffering. In fact, we often question when they come into our lives, wondering why God is doing such a thing to us!

What we forget, however, is that such trials, such difficulties, are exactly what we need to be more fruitful, more useful, more fit for the Creator’s use.

As Christmas rolls around and the end of the year comes into sight, many of us take time to reflect back on the months we’ve just come through. And if you’re like most people, those months have likely been filled with ups and downs, chaos and cheer.

Don’t use this holiday to dwell on those down times. Instead, realize that those good and bad times are both working out a purpose—to smooth our rough places and prepare a beautiful story of redemption that brings glory to God.

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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Image Credit: NARA DVIDS