In just a few weeks one of the most tumultuous years that any of us has ever known will be coming to an end. When I think about this year, the thing that stands out in my mind the most is those early days in March waking up each day and wondering just how much of what I thought was certain will have changed since I went to sleep.The lives that we are living now, the conversations and the arguments that we’ve had over the past several months, these things were unimaginable in February. And as March arrived, we all were checking the news and reading updates almost hourly as Covid-19 began making its way towards our communities.

The reality that we have lived in since this March, has been that we do not have any idea of what tomorrow may bring. We’ve all labored to become experts in science, and politics, and pandemics this year and yet, the words of James 4:14 are as true as they ever were that “[We] do not know what tomorrow will bring.”

This year has been an anxiety inducing constant reminder that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And we’ve hated it. 

I can’t remember how many times this year that I’ve commented that people can’t live like this. As limited human beings we aren’t able to know everything. We can’t read every article. We can’t watch every video. We can’t absorb constant major changes to our lives. This year has been an anxiety inducing constant reminder that we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. And we’ve hated it. And we’ve longed for this year to end. And we’ve longed for the comfort of what we used to know as normal.

I was introduced to the world of Reformed Catechisms in college and the Heidelberg Catechism is my favorite catechism. It begins by answering the question, where can we find comfort.

The first question asks, “What is your only comfort in life and death?” and its answer is amazing. It says this, “That I am not my own, but belong - body and soul, both in life and in death, to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. He has fully paid for all my sins with His precious blood, and has set me free from all the power of the devil. He also preserves me in such a way that without the will of my heavenly Father not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, all things must work together for my salvation. Therefore, by His Holy Spirit He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him.”

What an incredible comfort for our souls to hear! We are not our own, “but belong - body and soul, both in life and in death, to [our] faithful Savior Jesus Christ.” If we were “our own,” then all of the pressure and responsibility for our future would be resting on our own shoulders. We would need to be experts in everything. We would be right to be anxious. There is so much that we can’t know. There is so much that we can’t control. We cannot guarantee our own safety, or our own health, or our own finances. And we can’t guarantee those things for our friends and family either. To truly be “our own” is a terrible thing.

... we have this incredible comfort: we belong to Jesus Christ.

But here at the beginning of this catechism, we are assured that if we have come to Jesus Christ in faith and repentance, then we belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, and the result of this belonging is that we can rest in the knowledge, that even in a world of constant change, without the will of our heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from our heads. As the pressure ramps up at work, as grief finds us, as the anxiety and stress of the holidays begins, as we miss our friends and families during a season when we are usually gathering with them, as we wonder what new changes tomorrow and 2021 will bring, we have this incredible comfort: we belong to Jesus Christ.

We live in a world that celebrates individualism and independence. Believers, take comfort this Christmas in confessing that we are not our own. In a year when it has been hard to know who we can trust, trust the one who gave His life to redeem you, called you His own, and is working all things for your good and His glory.

As we celebrate Christmas and the coming of a new year our hearts can find comfort in the truth that we are not our own, but belong - body and soul, both in life and in death, to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ.