Christmas Reflections Part 6

Christmas and its sequels (the cross and the second coming) are the climax to the cosmic conflict. That the infinite God upon whose shoulders the universe hangs became so helpless as to hang at the breast of a woman is the depth of condescending love that the most inspired mind must utterly fail to fathom. Suddenly the eternal was walking within the bounds of time. Calvary was a mountain that felt the footsteps of its creator, and there saw him lifted between heaven and earth as if He were not fit for either. Christmas eve is pictured as a tranquil scene. “Silent night” we sing. But behind the scenes, the kingdom of the enemy was in turmoil. The universe is in awe at the events that are about to transpire. Paul tells us that this insignificant speck in the cosmos is the theatre of the universe, (to use his language.)

If you are an evening news watcher like me, then you will know that the whole world of sport, weather, floods, hurricanes, and other disasters affecting tens of thousands of lives are all summed up in 1-2 minute ‘grabs’. It seems as if people are satisfied with slogans and summaries rather than the substance of what is really going on out there. The News Channels give a bit more detail, but every night momentous events are trivialized into a couple of sentences that give a superficial understanding of the world in which we live.

Christmas is no different. There is no shortage of superficial slogans on a plethora of Christmas cards like, “Have a good Christmas,” “compliments of the season” or “Merry Christmas and a happy new year.” If people by way of the news media have a superficial understanding of the world, they also have an extremely superficial understanding of what is going on in the universe. There is no shortage of people who fail to recognize what really happened in the manger. The substance of the Christmas story is contained in an incredibly brief statement that simply says, “The Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we have seen His glory.”  TBC