Sir,
With all the presents now unwrapped, and the Christmas tree stored away for another year, it seems people’s lives are as empty as ever with charity shops, across the country, inundated with unwanted Christmas gifts. January, they claim, is one of the busiest months of the year!
Despite the extravagance and indulgence behind all the festive holiday giving and receiving, the human heart craves for something greater and grander than this world, even at Christmas, can give. True and lasting happiness is certainly not to be found in any of the gifts that are bought and sold on the markets of time. Not even the best gift, under the deluxe Christmas tree, is able to fill the empty vacuum and restlessness that is deep within. It never has and it never will.
The answer to our greatest, and deepest, need is to be found at the forgotten tree of Calvary, where Jesus Christ gave the greatest, also forgotten, gift of all. While He is remembered, the world over, once a year as the Baby born in Bethlehem He is woefully ignored as the Christ who died on the ‘old rugged cross’ for sinners: and that is the tragedy. The tragedy of all tragedies is to live and die without God.
People’s lives are empty and hopeless because they do not turn to Him and receive the forgiveness He offers for sin, when they repent and believe the gospel. Through His death the Bible reminds us that He “bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes (wounds) ye are healed.”
Only Jesus Christ can heal the unending brokenness, and fill the emptiness, when we come, by faith alone, to trust in Him as our Lord and Saviour. The ‘amazing grace’ of God then transforms the whole person and everything becomes new: ‘the old is gone and all things becomes new.’ Yes, everything. Brokenness is exchanged for wholeness, restlessness for restfulness and emptiness for a full, complete and real life in Christ ‘the Prince of peace.’
Listen to His own testimony and invitation: “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly…Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
Yes, He is the answer for our sin, and His sacrifice at Calvary is the greatest gift man will ever know, and the most enduring gift we will ever receive. But to receive it we must, like every gift, accept it. All the treasures and pleasures of life combined cannot be compared with this ‘unspeakable’ gift: “the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
The good news for everyone, including all who are depressed, crushed, stressed, lonely and downhearted is that the missing link is to be found at the forgotten tree, and in forgotten gift, of Calvary. It is there our ‘rest’ is to be found. St Augustine of Hippo sums it up well when he said: ‘Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in Thee.’
Our sincere hope and heart-
Mr Donald J Morrison
85 Old Edinburgh Road
Inverness
Letter: Empty lives
15 January 2016