Every December, we’re surrounded by familiar words: “Merry Christmas,” “Peace on Earth,” “Joy to the World.” But there’s another phrase we hear this time of year, tucked inside a prophecy written 700 years before Jesus’ birth: “He will be called Wonderful Counselor.”

It’s easy to hear that and imagine Jesus as the world’s greatest therapist; a calm listener with wise advice and warm presence. But when Isaiah wrote those words, he meant something even bigger. “Wonderful Counselor” literally means a strategist with wisdom beyond understanding. Someone with a plan when no one else can see one. Someone who knows the way forward when the rest of us are stumbling in the dark.

And if we’re honest, most of us know exactly what stumbling in the dark feels like.

Maybe it’s finances. Maybe it’s parenting. Maybe it’s a relationship you’re not sure how to repair. Maybe it’s the growing pile of decisions that seem to outweigh your capacity to make them. Life can feel like wandering through a strange city with no map, no plan, and no idea where you’re supposed to go next.

It turns out the world Jesus was born into felt a lot like that too.

In Isaiah’s time, the nation of Judah was falling apart under a king who, out of fear and confusion, ditched God’s wisdom and copied the strategies of the powerful nations around him. Those strategies were built on force, exploitation, and the idea that people exist to serve the powerful. It was leadership without love, direction without compassion. And it plunged the nation into darkness.

Into that darkness, Isaiah spoke a word of hope: a child was coming. A king with a different kind of wisdom. A king with a plan.

And centuries later, when Jesus stepped onto the scene, people began to realize Isaiah wasn’t just describing some ideal leader - he was describing Jesus.

But Jesus’ strategy for life didn’t look anything like the plans the world was following. He said the poor were blessed, the meek would inherit the earth, and greatness looked like bending down to serve. He taught that forgiveness should be unlimited, generosity should be joyful, and the last would be first.

It didn’t make sense. Not at first. It was a strategy beyond understanding.

But then Jesus went further. He didn’t just tell us the plan, He lived it. He loved people who mocked Him. He restored people who betrayed Him. He welcomed those everyone else avoided. He stretched out His arms on a cross to take on the death and wreckage our self-focused plans create. And then He rose again, proving that His way really does lead to life.

That’s why Christmas matters. It’s not just the celebration of a birth, it’s the celebration of God revealing exactly what He is like. Jesus is the light that breaks into our darkness, the counselor with a plan better than anything we can dream up on our own.

So let me ask you: What’s your plan?

For your relationships?

For your work?

For your finances?

For the parts of your life that feel like they’re unraveling?

If your plan hasn’t been working, maybe it’s time to follow the One who calls Himself the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The Wonderful Counselor.

He’s the One who can light your path and lead you into the life you were made for.

Grace and peace,

Pastor Zac