A Very Merry COVID ChristmasSample

Praise God—You Are An Heir

Imagine that you’re a 32-year-old struggling to pay the bills.

(Some of you don’t have to think too hard for that one.)

You graduated college with a baffling amount of student loans, decided to splurge on your wedding, and (of course) got into a car accident that left you with medical bills that you have been chipping away at for the past four years.

The stress of the utility bill and the mortgage payment and the car loan is killing you, making every trip to the mailbox an anxiety-inducing experience. You’re smart enough to know that one more bad break and you’ll be in real trouble.

But then you receive your inheritance.

Apparently, your grandpa had serious money; something you never would have guessed from his 1970s house and 1990s flannel shirts. But, in love, he left you enough cash to take care of the medical bills and the credit cards and the loans. And more.

If that news came in the mail, how would you feel?

Maybe like Paul felt when he told the Ephesians: “The promised Holy Spirit . . . is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance” (Ephesians 1:13,14). Paul knew that as a believer in Jesus, he was sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. And if that weren’t good enough news, that Spirit guaranteed Paul the inheritance that every Christian gets to experience.

The presence of God.

Because Jesus came into this world at Christmas to carry out his mission of salvation, you and I have the hope that puts every other hope to shame. We will see God in a place where there is no more pressure or pain, no more anxiety or envy, no more bills or burdens, no more death or depression. In his presence, there will only be relief and rejoicing, laughter and love, compassion and community, grace on top of grace.

I don’t know what day that blessing will show up in the mail. Maybe today if you take your last breath. Maybe on Christmas morning if Jesus chooses to show up for the second time. But I do know that it will happen. There’s no doubt about it because the God who cannot lie has promised it.

So for now, we put up with the struggle. We set one foot in front of the other and try to honor Jesus in this broken world. We deal with the politics and the pandemics, sometimes in the same year!

But the entire time, we know who we are. We are heirs.

Wrap that truth up and put a bow on it because it is truly good news.