It was a Friday afternoon almost exactly twenty years ago. I was the Western Regional Credit Manager for Mercury Marine, an outboard engine manufacturer. A huge man (my boss), had just arrived from Fond-a-lac, Wisconsin on a surprise visit. He entered my office and announced, with very little tact, a might addd … that I was fired.

You see, I had trusted a dealer of ours, and that misplaced trust ending up costing the company a lot of money and someone needed to take the fall.  That someone, probably deservedly, was me.

I was devastated! I had worked for Mercury for five years and thought I had quite the career ahead of me.  Apparently, not with that company.

I needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn’t judge me, but would really listen.  Luckily, I knew just such a person.  He was my best friend, Mike, a friend I still count on to this day. He listened. He let me rant and rave and even cry a little bit. 

He helped me see the future. A future that had the potential to be a lot better than the one I had with Mercury Marine.  He stood by me.  Having him there for me made all the difference.  And although Mike is not a very religious person, I believe that God worked through him that day and gave me hope.

Have you ever been in that kind of position? Life has dealt you a hard blow and you need to process it with someone who would understand. If you have someone in your life you can turn to, you are richly blessed.

Maybe it’s your mom or dad, or some other family member – perhaps a brother or sister, a grandparent, a special aunt or uncle. 

Or, for that matter, maybe it’s your spouse, or a teacher, a mentor, a coach, maybe even a doctor or therapist or pastor, or maybe for you, too, it’s been a good friend, your best friend. 

Whoever it might happen to be, these are the rare people in our lives who truly know us inside and out; who understand who we are and know what we’re about, the kind of people who truly “get” us, sometimes even better than we “get” ourselves! 

These are the people to whom we can really talk openly and honestly, and know that they’ll listen, and not judge us, but always love us as they give us the benefit of their counsel, and above all their understanding. 

And isn’t that what we all long for, to be understood? 

It’s been said that no matter how old we are, or how grown up we might appear to be, ultimately we’re all like children, in a way, who at times feel out of step with the other kids. 

It’s a confusing and often contradictory world in which we live, a place where so many of us are unsure of who we are and what we’re supposed to be. 

The bottom line is that we all want to be loved, to be accepted and valued for who we are, to have someone who will understand exactly what we’re feeling and who knows just what we need to get by.

That’s why it is such an incredible gift that in Christ, we are given a “Wonderful Counselor,” someone who understands and loves us like no other.

In Isaiah’s time, from where our Old Testament text comes, the term “Wonderful Counselor” suggested someone one of great wisdom and authority over the people of God …

And this name, the first of a series of names Isaiah records for the Christ child, suggested that this child is to be an exceptional and marvelous counselor, one who possesses the knowledge and wisdom, the unique insight and experience, as well as the powerful compassion and love to show each one of us the way!

René Schlaepfer, a very dynamic pastor, tells the true story of a Christmas concert at the church of a colleague of his, in which a children’s choir was singing. 

Well, apparently sitting in the front pew of the church was a little red-headed boy watching the whole thing, but unfortunately not hearing any of it, because the little boy was completely deaf. 

So, “at best,” Schlaepfer said, “the boy was mildly interested in what was going on with the other children who were singing up in the front of the church.  There wasn’t any message for him; how could there be, he couldn’t hear the words!”

But suddenly, everything changed – the children in the choir began to sing the words of one of the songs, using their hands as well as their voices! 

They were using sign language, and immediately, the little red-headed boy’s eyes lit up and opened wide, and he smiled the kind of smile that only incredibly happy kids can smile, and then he stood up on the pew and started doing the motions along with the rest of the kids! 

He could hardly contain himself; he turned to his mother, who was there beside him, and he said, “They’re singing to me!  They’re singing to me!”  In fact, later on, his mother said that the little boy thought that the entire evening had been planned just for him!

Well, that is exactly the kind of “wonderful counsel” that you and I get from God’s great gift of Jesus Christ!  Through Christ, you see, God speaks our language! 

As you know, another name of the Christ is Emmanuel, which means “God With Us.” That means more than God having close proximity to our lives – it means that through Jesus Christ, God knows exactly who we are, knows where we are in our lives, knows what to say to us in the midst of our doubts and fear.

God knows what to do for us when we are filled with confusion and uncertainty, knows how and where to lead us even when we seemed determined to go precisely in the opposite direction, and God can do this because God, in Jesus, has been one of us! 

That’s actually a good definition of the incarnation, and it comes through very clearly in our New Testament reading this morning, from Hebrews, a passage, by the way, that we often read on Good Friday as a means of trying to grasp the meaning of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross: 

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are, yet was without sin.”

To put it another way, Jesus is the ultimate counselor in our lives because being fully human, he knows how we feel; being fully God, he knows and can provide what we need. 

And because of his limitless love, he will bring his power that you and I might get through whatever it is that we’re struggling through so that we might truly know what it is to live in the warmth God’s loving embrace forever. 

You know, one of the things that always kind of amazes me as a pastor are the times someone will come up to me and say, “Did you preach that sermon just for me? (or select that hymn or pray that prayer?)”  “How did you know I needed to hear just what you said?”

Well, the reality is that although I try to strike a common chord with what we do up here, believe it or not I have never directed what I have to say specifically at one person. Or even two people for that matter.

That being said, given that I do believe that God’s spirit works through these services and occasionally even my words, I have to say that yes, maybe what’s being said is just for you! But don’t blame me!

And it’s not just here in worship – there are indeed times and places, and people, in our lives that just maybe, somehow and someway, are an extension of our “Wonderful Counselor” breaking through to us, and speaking our language! 

Who’s to say that God isn’t trying to get your attention right now?  Why wouldn’t God, out of God’s great and redeeming love, be trying to shake any of us out of our complacency and move us both closer to Him and to his kingdom? 

Isn’t that, after all, what this season of “advent” is supposed to be about, helping us to wait and watch and prepare for the incredible thing that God in Christ is about to do in our world and in our lives?

If you ask me, that’s not a bad thing to think about as we begin another Advent season!

As I said before, that is why God came in the form of a baby, born in Bethlehem, and that is why we await his coming again – to meet the deepest needs of our lives, to provide the wonderful counsel that only he can provide.

As many of you know and I think she will admit, my wife is at times, directionally challenged.  There have been numerous times when she has called me while she was on the road, hopelessly and hysterically (her words) lost and needing me to give her directions. Thank God for cell phones!

Usually I am pretty good at helping her find her way, but there have been occasions where I just made matters worse.  My intentions were good, but I just didn’t come through for her. 

You see, as much as I wanted to be there for her – sometimes I came up short – I just was not equipped to give her what she needed at the time.

And it occurs to me that this is true about so much we receive in life; ultimately, it just doesn’t help us the way we need to be helped!

That’s particularly true, I think, as we enter into another busy holiday season – so many of us end up with the mistaken belief that this season itself and all the chaos that goes along with it is everything we’ll need to be happy – but the truth is that inevitably, the world’s celebration of Christmas will pass as quickly as the calendar turns to December 26. 

We need something deeper; we need a true Christmas that speaks to the heart and to the course of our very lives – every day and every season! 

So how very blessed we are that “unto us a child is born,” and that we have been given one who will be called “Wonderful Counselor.”

A “Wonderful Counselor” who has an ability to help us that goes far beyond what the world can offer us and even what we can offer one another – Jesus Christ.

God’s incredible Christmas gift!

Thanks be to God for such a gift.

AMEN!