Christmas December 25, 2025: Courage

Courage

One word we don’t hear very often on Christmas is courage. Yet courage is everywhere in the Christmas story.

It took courage for Mary to say yes to bearing the Son of God. It took courage for Joseph to take a pregnant woman into his home as his wife. It took courage for the shepherds to leave what was familiar and respond to the angels’ message.

And if we’re honest, for some of us, it took courage just to show up here today. Research professor Brené Brown says something surprising about courage. She says the greatest barrier to courage is not fear. It’s something else. [Invite a child up and gently wrap them in Christmas paper.]

Brene Brown says the greatest barrier to courage is armor. Think of this wrapping paper as armor. Armor is how we protect ourselves when we feel uncertain, vulnerable, or exposed. We armor up with control, perfectionism, self-sufficiency, sarcasm, or silence. Armor helps us feel safe—but it also can keep us distant.

Courage, then, is not the absence of fear. Courage is the willingness to lay down the armor.

And this is exactly what we see at Christmas. Jesus enters the world without armor—not as a king, not as a warrior, but as a fragile, dependent child. And He leaves the world without armor—exposed, vulnerable, nailed to a cross.

And everything in between is an invitation: an invitation to disarm… to let go of fear, shame, and self-protection… to trust that vulnerability is not weakness, but is the birthplace of love, courage, and transformation. So maybe today is the day we break out of our armor.

[Have the child tear off the wrapping paper.]

Maybe today is the day you lay something down.

The need to be right. The need to be in control. The need to have everything perfect.

Maybe today is the day you say, “I’m sorry,” or “Can we start over?” Maybe you say those words, “I love you.” Maybe today you offer someone the gift of your honesty, your real self and really tell what’s going on? No more pretense or lies. Because in the end, Christmas is not about perfectly wrapped presents— it’s about a God who comes to us unwrapped.

And maybe the most courageous thing you can do this Christmas… is let down your armor and let yourself be be seen and be known for you really are.