One of my favorite events during the holidays is to watch my children in their seasonal performances. It is a moment when the materialism and busyness of Christmas briefly stop, and we focus on little souls and little hearts that exude Christmas joy.
I was sitting in a room full of parents and grandparents watching my kids in their homeschool Christmas program. My youngest was in a group that had been learning sign language. They performed their sign language skills accompanied by the classic song, Do you hear what I hear?
I will let that sink in a minute.
Their message roared as those beautiful little seven-year-old hands swayed and moved with silent beauty, in a song I heard countless times. I soon felt silent tears hugging my cheeks.
No words spoken. But we all heard them. I heard it more clearly than ever before.
Do you hear what I hear? “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Isaiah 35:5,6). The deaf, the blind, the lame… they will hear and see and jump for joy. The message was profoundly communicated with no sound at all. Just as there is a language with which deaf people “hear,” there is a deeper language that we have all been created to hear.
On the night of the Savior’s birth, God sent angels to deliver the message of hope, freedom for the captives, and light overcoming darkness. The ambassadors sent to hear and convey this transformational message to the world were the most upside-down choice in the culture of that day… shepherds. The angels did not descend in glory to tell the rich and powerful that the Sovereign King of all Creation had humbled Himself into the form of a vulnerable infant. They came to shepherds. The lowest of low in society, their testimony was not even acceptable in a court of law. Yet, the testimony of what they had seen and heard was entrusted unto them by the angels of heaven.
Being deaf or blind or lame or poor or an outcast did not disqualify people from witnessing and hearing one of the most crazy-amazing events in human history. God spoke to them in their language. Not just their verbal language, but their heart-and-soul language. Jesus spoke the love and hope that the world so desperately needed in a language they would understand. He did not ask people to figure it out on their own, or to do anything special or difficult to know Him. The Savior revealed Himself to them in a way that would meet them right where they were: Hurting, grief-stricken, poor, weak, discouraged, sinful, addicted, broken-hearted.
The Heavenly Father spoke in a language that everyone could hear. We don’t need a special translation to comprehend the language of Jesus’ love. Jesus knew what the world needed to hear, and how to speak the message in a way that everyone could equally hear and understand. He made Himself known whole-heartedly and held nothing back.
I have watched several friends experience tough losses this holiday season. I have seen friends suffer with physical and mental illness. Yet I have seen the joy that these dear friends still have. Deep, abiding joy. Not the counterfeit “Hallmark joy,” but the real stuff that defies the notion that contentment exists only in a “we are all healthy and happy” bubble.
Such enduring joy would be unexplainable without the reality that Jesus Christ came to be with us. He desires us, wants a relationship with us, and deeply cherishes us.
Joy is possible because God speaks the language that holds broken hearts close. It is a language that enlightens displaced hope and uncertain futures.
To all of us, Jesus speaks in the language our hearts understand. He speaks to each of our hearts where we are, because He came to set our hearts truly free.