So let me ask you … are you in the mood for doing another Christmas, or not? Perhaps everyone else is cheerfully going about their Christmas preparations, but you … perhaps you have stuff going on and the last thing you want to focus on right now is Christmas.

Have you ever woken up in the morning after tossing and turning in bed all night? Your soul’s in turmoil, the pressures of life are mounting, nothing seems to be getting any better, and everyone’s talking Christmas. The carols are being piped through your local shopping centre, the decorations are up, but the last thing you feel is that ‘Christmas cheer’.

That’s reality. That’s life. All the carols and decorations and presents and preparations aren’t going to change that.

Which is why, when it comes to Jesus, you can afford to get real. He didn’t come into this world as a carol, or a bauble, or a pithy Christmas message. He came as a gritty, down-to-earth Saviour – as this woman who’d been suffering for over a decade discovered for herself:

Matthew 9:21,22 She was thinking, “If I can touch his coat, I will be healed.” Jesus turned and saw the woman. He said, “Be happy, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.” Then the woman was healed.

So whatever’s going on in your life heading into this Christmas, get real with Jesus – even if it’s in desperation, as it was in this woman’s case … If only I can squeeze through the crowd and touch his coat … that’s all it took.

I want to encourage you today to press through the trappings of Christmas, press through the emotions, take your burdens to Jesus however you can, just as you are.

Because that, my friend, is why He came. He came for you. That’s what Christmas is all about.

And that’s God’s Word. Fresh … for you … today.