As a child I loved Christmas... well I loved the presents, I loved seeing my grandparents, uncles, aunties and cousins, I loved the feel of it.
But as I grew older my love for that time of year faded. I no longer got to see a lot of my extended family which meant Christmas day would be quiet with just me and my parents, it felt really sad.
When I properly became a Christian I didn't really understand at first why Christmas was made such a big deal out of, surely Easter should be the one to shout about?! That's when we celebrate Jesus dying and coming back to life and taking the rap for our sins - why are we paying so much attention to His birth? Everyone gets born, why are we meant to get so excited about that?!
But I have been reminded time and time again of just why exactly we ought to get flippin well excited
Why we should be left in childlike awe at the Christmas story
Because it is not just the story of another baby being born into poverty, being born in difficult circumstances that is not the whole story of Christmas
It is about the Kingdom of God, the gospel narrative
It's about the all consuming, fierce, extravagant, wild, over the top love of God
It's about the price God paid to have us as His own
It is about all that Jesus gave up for us
Allow me to attempt to explain it as best I can think to do right now:
From the beginning God was there, one God, three persons; Father, Son and Holy Spirit
From everlasting to everlasting
Enjoying all the joy, glory, goodness and complete satisfaction of heaven
But His heart ached for the world, he saw the brokenness and all the hurt and rubbish that surrounded people
He gave them laws but they were too much for them to bare, the things they were doing were not good, because God was so perfect and Holy, these things that were so imperfect and unholy tore the people away from God, their sin soaked lives could not bare the presence of God and they lived in what seemed like inescapable shame.
Even when they worshiped and sacrificed and repented, God kept forgiving them, but they would keep going back to their destructive habits.
He knew that a bigger sacrifice had to be made
He knew He had to go in
He knew He had to become the weakest thing man could perceive, He would be tested, persecuted and tempted in every way that we are yet remain sinless. He would be the example of perfection.
But this example we could never live up to had to live the life we could not live and die the death that we deserved so that we could share in what is His. As C.S. Lewis puts it in Mere Christianity: 'The Son of God became man to enable men to become sons of God'
This is the staggering proposition of the nativity that God came to earth, that God came to us in the most unlikely way, that God gave up all the comfort, goodness, joy and glory of heaven, that complete perfection and satisfaction to be born in what people perceived as suspicious circumstances, to be born as a refugee, to grow up under the occupation of a cruel empire and to die a death designed to be slow, shameful and painful
All this so that we might share in His reign, so that we could be with Him forever
He became poor so that we would share in the treasures of heaven
He was despised so that we could know His love for us
He became weak so that His strength could live in us
He was alone so that we might never be alone
He was accused so that we would be safe from every accusation forever
He was shamed so that we could be honoured
He was rejected so that we could be embraced
He was torn apart from the Father so that one day we will be one with the Father
This is Emmanuel
This is God with us
This is good news
This is Christmas
أمين تعال أيها الرب يسوع
Amen, come Lord Jesus
He is good all the time
Merry Christmas
Caris
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