Advent Devotional - December 11, 2016

“And in this Child we’ll find our rest / And all the meek and lowly blest / An infant tongue could sing the hymn / Of Hallelujah and Amen / Amen, Amen / Amen, Amen / I found my life / I found my life in Him / Amen, Amen”

-Amen, Amen

Almost all good movies have a villain, and almost no movie has one as unlikable as Hilly Holbrook, the well-to-do socialite in the 2011 film, The Help. Set in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, the movie powerfully portrays the struggles of black maids working for white families in the Jim Crow South. One of those maids is Aibileen Clark, and it’s her exchange with Hilly that ends the movie on such a poignant and even theological note. After being framed and falsely accused of theft by Hilly, and thereby losing her job, Aibileen confronts the woman who has caused her so much pain, who has heaped upon her great labor and intense burdens:

“All you do is scare and lie to try and get what you want. You a godless woman. Ain’t you tired, Miss Hilly? Ain’t you tired?”

Aibileen is exactly right. Sin has a wearying effect. It wears us down and wears us out. Like Hilly, whenever we go against God’s design and God’s rule, sin robs us of vitality and strength. And like Aibileen, whenever we experience the effects of the Fall, we are reminded that life isn’t supposed to be this way. Indeed, life doesn’t feel like life at all when death is what we experience.

But, as the song says, there is a Child who can give us rest. Rest from our own sins and rest from all sin’s wretched effects. He is the One in whom we can find life, rest, and even eternal blessing. He is the One by whom and to whom we sing our hymn and utter our Hallelujah. He is the One through whom we say, “Amen, Amen.” If you’re tired, then come and find your life in the One who invites, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).