Christmas Wonder

What if a person could see Christmas with new eyes? What if a person, shaped and schooled by this world system, all of a sudden found in Jesus forgiveness of sins, and meaning, and love?

If that were to happen, then I would think that this person’s approach to the Christmas season would change, dramatically. For instance, what about those angels?

Nobody really believes in angels, do they? I suppose fruitcakes do. But no, the Bible is full of angels - heavenly messengers who break into the program with an important message that one could not possibly know without help. It happened to Zecharias, the father of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus; it happened to Mary, the young maiden who would be plucked from normal life and made the vessel for a divine operation. All of a sudden, our new believer will look around with a sense of new sensibilities - not that most of us, or any of us, will actually be visited by angels - but that God has a plan that is so important, that he sends “angelic alerts” at key times. God actually has a plan, and is working it. Who would have thought?

This new believer will see that the magic of Christmas is not based on a mere myth. He will see that there is a story of which Christmas is ‘only’ the beginning. That this Jesus lived, sinlessly. And then he died, blamelessly. And then, he rose from the dead, miraculously. He seemed crushed at the bottom of the world order, and then he turned that whole world order (of which a key part is this: you live, and then you die), upside down. He was born to die, so that we could be born again, to live, forever. And so it will dawn on this new believer that the ‘magic’ of Christmas is not a sentiment, but a wonder, that God so loved the world, that He sent His Son. 

And then, amazingly, he will begin to ponder how it is that the Creator could become a creature; how the King of the Universe would sacrifice His life for unruly subjects; how the High Priest of Heaven actually stoops to become the sacrificial lamb; how the Prophet who knows the mind of the Father actually comes to become the Word, so that this new believer does not just believe what He says - He believes in Him.

The new believer is surprised to learn that this Jesus has been foretold centuries before. But he will not be surprised that the prophet, 600 years in advance, called him ‘Wonderful.’