You don’t need me to tell you what strange times we are living in or how hard it is to carve out tiny bits of normal during a global pandemic. It’s been close to a universal struggle for most of us this year. I had hoped that by the Christmas season we would be able to resume some of our regular festive activities. Alas, here we are still hunkered down and trying to make the most of the hand we’ve been dealt.
My husband and I have been looking for ways to create special family holiday activities with our kids but in a safe way. One of those was getting a take-home box of Christmas ornaments from a local paint-your-own-pottery place. We painted them together at home and then dropped the box back at the studio for them to glaze and fire. Once the finished versions were back home, I stood there looking at them and thinking about how much effort it takes not just to make those ornaments look decent but to make something positive out of this difficult year.
As I stared at those ornaments my mind pinballed to traditional Christmas events that we won’t get to do this year. I thought about how it seems like we are having to work harder to salvage anything good out of this year. I don’t want to look back and put an asterisk on this Christmas. Or do I?
It’s not because I want to remember the struggle. I want to remember the blessing.
In Genesis 32 versus 22-32 we read the story of Jacob wrestling God. Jacob is traveling away from his father-in-law, which wasn’t a great situation, and toward home and his brother who had previously wanted to kill him. Kind of between a rock and hard place. In the middle of the night, he finds himself wrestling God in the form of a man.
Jacob says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man touched his hip socket, put it out of joint, and gave him a limp. Jacob fought for his blessing and came away changed. God said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” God blessed him on the spot. Jacob called the place Peniel: “For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.” (Verse 30, NKJV).
Jacob acknowledged God and his blessing in that moment. He left physically and spiritually altered. But he saw his blessing.
Friends, sometimes in the middle of struggles, we must wrestle God for our blessing. We can’t wrestle from a distance. We’ve got to get close, and we can’t let go. Jacob refused to quit. Even with a hip out of socket he wouldn’t give up. He didn’t say let’s rest and finish after we eat or regain some strength. Or let me attend to my injury and then we’ll finish. He said, “I won’t let go unless you bless me.”
What really strikes me about this is that God changed Jacob’sname because he struggled with God and men and “overcame.” Some translations say “prevailed.” Let’s be real. It’s not like God could lose an actual wrestling match to a human. That isn’t what this is about. That’s not the type of overcoming we’re talking about.
No matter what was behind him or ahead of him, the struggle, the injury, the pain, or what happened to him during the fight, he wasn’t going to let go of God. Friends, when we make that decision in our own minds that’s when God reveals the blessing.
Painting pottery at home instead of going to see a live version of “The Nutcracker” is not exactly what comes to mind when we think about wrestling with God. But refusing to let go of God during a struggle is absolutely what leads to a blessing. A block of my finite amount of time spent celebrating Christmas with my most special people, in whatever way it happens, is a blessing worth remembering.
Most of us will not come out of this year the same way we went in. I can tell you with absolute certainty that I don’t want to go back. And we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t have some apprehension about what’s waiting for us up ahead. However, that doesn’t mean that we can’t be blessed. That we aren’t blessed. Just be prepared to come out with a limp.
Can you make a commitment to stay in the fight with God and not let go? If you can, you’ll find your blessing.
