My favorite Christmas carol is by the 19th-century poet Christina Rossetti. Its last verse goes like this: What can I give him, poor as I am? If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb; If I were a wise man, I would do my part; Yet what I can I give him: give my heart.

we must stop pretending we’re the hero of the story. We must admit we don’t deserve a happy ending. In fact, we are the unsuspecting villain. And yet—in the most shocking twist of all—the hero of the story loves us.

joining Jesus’ story is the most real thing that could ever happen to us. We don’t just live and die and get forgotten. With Jesus we will live, and die, and live again in his new world.

He knows our secret thoughts and deepest shame, and yet he loves us—all the way to death and back again.

Jesus was raised to life once and for all. He faced death to defeat it. He paid for our sins so that we wouldn’t have to.

Jesus—the one person in history whose thoughts and words and deeds were only good—willingly took the punishment for every evil thought and word and deed that’s ever gushed out of my heart or yours.

Jesus always welcomed the outsider. He protected the weak, healed the sick, and fed the poor. He welcomed prostitutes, touched lepers, and held infants in his arms. Although he was God’s promised King, he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

We all stand before Jesus guilty to the core. Like someone getting an unexpected cancer diagnosis, we may have thought we were morally healthy, but Jesus says we’re desperately spiritually sick.

Within 24 hours of speaking all my truth, all my relationships would die. Not all my thoughts are bad. But enough are (even about those I love the most) that speaking them would devastate my life.