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December 9 Isaiah 53:3 Christmas Verse Is That? Elodie Ballantine Emig, MA Instructor of Greek D espite its frenetic pace and growing secularization, I love the Christmas season. I have forged and continue to forge wonderful holiday memories, but what of those who don't? What of those on the margins of the happy Christian family, those who dread Christmas' reminder of loneliness, pain, and loss? Isaiah's Suffering Servant may be depicted in Easter language, but He is both the man on Calvary and the babe in Bethlehem. In all likelihood, Jesus' early years were sprinkled with periods of contentment and moments of delight, but He also must have faced profound loneliness. Jesus was the original odd man out. He set aside the intimate fellowship of the eternal Godhead to clothe Himself with limitation and to live in a world marred by sin. at first Christmas, the creative word of God was reduced to incomprehensible cries. Frankly, we don't know how His self-awareness developed, but by the age of 12 He recognized the Temple in Jerusalem as His Father's house. In His early thirties He described His generation as faithless and perverse. He had no true peers, and even His closest associates had feet and hearts of clay. e point, of course, is that Jesus can empathize with the lonely, the abandoned, and the suffering. More than that, He can and does offer true hope in the midst of alienation and pain. We know that Jesus endured the shame of the Cross for the joy set before Him. Arguably, He endured all the vicissitudes of His earthly life for the same reason. Please consider meditating on the compassionate God who took on everything from hunger and homelessness to false arrest in coming alongside us. In Advent as well as Lent, let's ponder the lengths and depths to which incarnation took Jesus. If the Christmas season already brings you joy, please share and enrich it by taking time to sit prayerfully with the outcast or the shut-in. If Christmas is difficult for you, please be assured that Jesus really does feel your pain. Invite Him to celebrate His Christmas feast in the place of your deepest need. Cry out to the Man of Suffering to birth something new in your heart this season. 4 What Kind of