Jesus Really Is The Reason!
For God so loved the world!
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace — Isaiah 9:6 (KJV)
Today is December 1st which means that the Advent season is upon us. Actually, for churches who follow a traditional church calendar, Advent began this past Sunday (November 29th) with the lighting of the first of four advent candles. Three more candles will be lit on subsequent Sundays.
My fellowship doesn’t follow the church calendar in such detail, but I do appreciate those which do. There is something to be said about focusing on our minds on what is important at this time of the year and that is the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Make no mistake about it: I do like the colors, many of the traditions, and the festive air of Christmas. My favorite movie is Charles Dickens’ redemption story A Christmas Carol, but I also like the silliness of A Christmas Story. Though I never wanted a Red Ryder BB gun myself, I can easily recall the anticipation I felt as a child longing for Christmas morning and what packaged surprises were underneath the tree.
What I didn’t like is having to attend mass later that morning – what did that have to do with Christmas?
I’m older and hopefully wiser now and fully understand what the First Advent was all about. In the early church and well into the 1800s, Christians acknowledged the event but it wasn’t the frenzied celebration that it is today. Commercialization has transformed Christmas into something else, with a focus on good feelings, festivities, and gift exchanging.
Few people alive today remember when the Christmas holiday was simple though I do remember hearing stories from much older aunts and uncles who were grateful to receive an orange in their stockings. Today, oranges seem to be everywhere as they are flown, trucked, or shipped in from Florida, Israel, South America and other groves.
Our modern world is so far removed from the ancient world that it is virtually impossible to comprehend the difficulty people went through on a daily basis. I don’t mean to make light of the real struggles many people are facing today – foreclosure, job loss, illness, family problems – but being unmarried, pregnant, and having to ride on a donkey only to find that there was not even room in the inn for you to give birth is hard to fathom.
Worse, the stink of the barn, bellowing farm animals, and a disgusting feed trough to lay your baby in must have bewildered Joseph and Mary who knew that Jesus was special, but were still trying to wrap their minds around what they were beholding.
In retrospect and by the power of the Holy Spirit we can understand what took place in that manger in Bethlehem for we have the Bible to explain to us such matters. We know that the world was separated from God and only Jesus could restore what had been forfeited by our first parents.
Sin is and was a serious matter with God so much so that only God in the flesh could bridge the gap between Himself and mankind. The wonder of Christmas is that God veiled Himself in flesh, lived among us, healed and taught us, died, rose from the dead, and will be coming again…soon.
The celebration of the First Advent for all of its contemporary glitter is only a shadow of what is to come. Some day we’ll celebrate the Second Advent, a true mass of Christ that will right every wrong, fix every broken heart, heal the sick, raise the dead in Christ, and restore the world to its rightful place under the authority of the only king worthwhile to rule the nations: Jesus Christ.
Until then, we have Christmas – a wonderful opportunity to tell the world the good news of Jesus Christ. Enjoy the advent season and the wonder of God veiled in human flesh.
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