Christmas celebrates the awesome and amazing fact that God is grander,wiser, and more mysterious than we could have ever imagined.
Everything about Christmas in totally unexpected. In retrospect, of course, we see God's infinte wisdom; but even then, we see this only with His divine help and thie eyes of faith.
Familiarity with what God has done in the past blinds us to what He intended on that first Christmas.
Christmas in God unrecognized, God unexpected, God misunderstood. It is also, to our utter amazement and joy, God delightfully revealed.
We can never hope to capture the Christmas spirit and make it our own unless we understand that God is so much greater than we ever though He was. We thought we knew all albout God. The incarnation proved us wrong.
Was there a moment known only to God, when all the stars held their breath, when the galaxies paused in their dance for a fraction of a second, and the Word, who had called it all into being, went witih all His love into the womb of a young girl, and the universe started to breathe again, and the ancient harmonies resumed their song, and the angels clapped their hands for joy?
(Bright Evening Star, Crosswicks, Inc., 1977)
At Christmas, we get a taste of the eternal, and it whets our appetite for more; strained relationships often seem better as we are more willing to put aside our differences; and giving takes precedence over getting.
With its celebration, joy, excitement, warmth, and holiness, Christmas reminds us that although many wonderful promises have been fulfilled in our midst, we are still waiting for the last, eternal, Christmas morning - the one that will last forever.
We desperately want to embrace all that Christmas promises, especially Immanuel - God with us. He came to live with us, and not within us, but His inner presence only makes up desire more.
The celebration of Christmas is a delicious spiritual hors d'oeuvre to eternity, tantalizing us with reminders that the banquet is yet to come, and it will be eternally satisfying.
Part of the real Christmas spirit is the hope it inspires in us of the day when Jesus will come again, no longer the baby in the manger, but the Lord of all the earth. That is the ultimate fulfillment of all that Christmas promises.
Taken from:
The Light of the World
Experiencing the Splendor of Christmas
Dan Schaeffer
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