Suffering and Christmas might not necessarily seem to come together. But for those of you who have lost a loved one in the last year, or are going through the breakup of a relationship, or are wondering how you are going to make ends meet, you know what I’m writing about.
A Gideon Bible representative once shared how one man became a Christian. He was out of work and living in a motel. He opened a Gideon Bible and looked at the table of contents and picked the word “Job” to turn to. He thought it was pronounced “jahb,” when actually it is Jobe. Nevertheless, God used the misunderstanding for him to find the way of salvation explained near the beginning of the Bible.
But Job has become a byword for suffering. He had everything, then he lost everything and everyone. He did not lose his own life but experienced great physical suffering, as well as psychological and spiritual pain and suffering. Eventually God restored things and people to Job, with interest! But that does not always happen.
Job did struggle, but he does say in Job 19,
But I know that my Redeemer lives,
and in the end He will stand upon the earth.
Even after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God.
I will see Him for myself;
my eyes will behold Him, and not as a stranger.
How my heart yearns within me!