Hello Everyone,
My good friend and brother in Christ, Jimmy Z has asked me to say a few words to you about Christmas. Unfortunately, what Christmas is, and what it means to me, cannot be summed up in words- at least not my words. Of the words in Scripture, I think the prophetic words of the prophet Isaiah come closest when he talks of the people walking in darkness seeing the great light. This great, powerful chapter of prophecy (Isaiah 9) gives rise to the great Christmas classic ‘’for unto us a child is born”. This, despite the fact that Isaiah prophesized those epic words centuries before the blessed event that we call ‘’the Nativity’’ and memorialize in a season called “Christmas”.
The exact date of the Nativity is something we cannot know with absolute certainty, although intense Biblical and historical study have convinced me that Jesus was born on December 25th, 1 BC, exactly as the calendar prescribes. Nevertheless, not knowing with certitude the exact date of that Silent, holy night, should not prevent one from fully contemplating why the early Christian church identified it as the one, singular event around which all time is measured. Take a moment to think about that.
In short, Christmas day is at the center and summit of all days. None in history before or since, reach it in importance. Some Christians argue that Good Friday or Easter surpasses it. I disagree, and so, obviously did the early church. The reason is simple. Christmas is where it begins for us. Christmas is the ultimate day of paradox. Christmas is the day when the impossible triumphed over the possible, when despair was crushed by hope. Not the vain and empty hope offered by shallow politicians but the healing hope of Immanuel- that is, “God with us”.
It IS that day of the great light and how great a light it is! The true light that enlightens every man came into the world. As Christian singer Michael Card penned; “eternity stepped into time”.
As I said before, Christmas is a time of paradox and that is what makes it so wonderful and overwhelming for believers and so incomprehensible and impossible for the lost. For one who can see only with his limited eyes, hear only with his weak ears and comprehend only with his frail mind, nothing exists beyond light and shadow and depth and height. For this one, there is nothing that exists that cannot be perceived by the senses and there is no line of demarcation between paradox and contradiction.
It is his loss. He will never understand how a woman’s most painful experience exists, simultaneously with her most joyous, in the miracle of childbirth. He will never understand how anyone can feel joy even in the midst of the deepest and darkest despair, as in the death of a loved one.
That joy is the miracle of Christmas. That spark of light that pierced the enveloping darkness and took from pain and sadness and suffering, and even death, it’s victory. As the Apostle Paul says, in mocking the powers of darkness, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?" (Corinthians 15:55).
Can we exist in a world without pain or sorrow or death or darkness? No, not yet. But know this. I look out my window right now, in the midst of a blizzard and I see a world blanketed in the purity of white. I see a hundred colors of light piercing a marshmallow frosting on housetops and balconies, trees and bushes and inside windows, I see trees in a blaze of silver and gold and green and red and blue, shimmering in dazzling light. I also see children playing, kicking up the snow and shoppers bustling about with arms full of packages and joy and excitement on so many faces.
And above it all, set against the sheet of white, I see the steeples of churches cutting the sky and calling us all back home.
Close your eyes and feel the snow on your face and listen to the children laugh and hear the majestic bells pierce the wind. Then let your mind wander in joyous rapture to a frigid winter night where a baby is cradled in the arms of a young mother, as the shiver in the stable amongst cattle and sheep.
As you open your eyes to the shock of snow and light, the explosion of color that leaps forth from the white canvas, you can feel the magic of this time of year. It fills every cell and penetrates every molecule. The joy of family and presents and eggnog and music are all part of the experience. I am sure your home will smell like pine and cinnamon and turkey and pumpkin pie all at once.
Yet, amidst all the noise of children running from room to room, the furious tearing of paper, the deep baritone of grandpa laughing with the grandkids, the sweet smells pouring from the kitchen, with be a still small voice that brings inexpressible joy to your heart. A holy haunting, carried on the softest breath of wind, borne on the wings of the ghosts of Christmas past.
It is that small voice that is not merely the center of your Christmas but the center of your life. Be recharged this Christmas, be rededicated. It is that light, that Great light, that will help you find your way through the coming darkness.
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