EMPTY If I asked you how you're feeling these days, is it possible that this is a word that might come to your lips? Maybe because of a vacant space at the table or a voice missing in the room. A familiar face and laugh that won't be seen or heard this year. Maybe because things this year haven't gone the way you ever would have wanted and you just feel drained. Maybe you feel the weight of financial stress that has you reeling and wondering if it's possible to ever get out from under it. Maybe you're struggling with an illness that has sidelined or isolated you and you wonder if or when things will change. Maybe you're walking through a divorce and experiencing the grieving of so many things that you once held dear but have been crumbling around you. Whatever it might be for you, emptiness is real. I feel it too. It is a vacuum where joy once resided, a space where hope once lived, a dark place where the sun once shone brightly. I don't have a magic pill to fill the emptiness or some magic powder that you can mix with water to bring back the joy and wipe away the pain. But I do know that we have not been left here on this earth to just stay empty and figure things out on our own. That's the very hope of Christmas. The very reason that Jesus came to earth was to walk among us, to experience the pain that we feel, be rejected like us, know what it's like to lose a friend, be misunderstood, hated, betrayed, scorned, mocked, tempted, doubted, and left alone. Emmanuel. God. With. Us. The one who created our very heart came to heal it's broken pieces. The one who formed our tear ducts came to sit with us when they have ran dry. The one who understands and loves us more than we could ever imagine came... for us. He came as a baby on that special night over 2000 years ago to drive a stake in the ground of history. A God you can actually know. Came for you... and me. That emptiness we feel? It can only really be filled by the one who came for our hearts. Give him your pain, your loss, your grief, your fear, your anxiety, your future, your plans... your life. Let him fill you and walk with you and bring healing. God came near.