The Chronicles of Christmas
An honest Christmas can be a tricky thing to excavate, buried under so many distractions constantly trying to take the focus off of Christ’s birth. Even for the seasoned Christian, between the neighborhood nativities, light shows, caroling, potlucks, and church services, it’s easy to let the season become just another checklist of things to see and do so that people think you get it. We can simply lose sight of such a distant event’s gravity and relevance to the modern world. After all, what do any of us really know of Holy? What mind can make sense of a perfect God taking on flesh, revealed in complete duality to His fallen creation? Something we could not see decided on a sacrifice that we did not deserve, and paid a price we never could have to save us from something we did not understand. The complexity and importance of this story is matched only by the simplicity of that silent night long ago when it began, and it’s that very wonder that nurtures the true Christmas spirit — one of overwhelming awe and uncompromising gratitude.
When it comes to Christmas two thousand years later, in some ways not much has changed. We’re all just trying to place ourselves in Bethlehem that fateful night — to see that star in the East shining down on the stable, and hear Mary’s cries fade into those of a newborn baby boy.
To feel the very same feeling the shepherds felt when the heavenly hosts appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them bringing the news of Immanuel.
To travel a thousand miles bearing gifts for a King and to arrive at a stable. As the soul felt its worth, to look upon the face of a child who, though hardly old enough to hold your gaze, would hold the hopes and dreams of a world lost to sin.
We try to imagine ourselves walking with Jesus in life.
To be John waist-deep in the river as your Lord comes forward to be baptized, and seeing the Holy Spirit descend on Him like a dove and a voice from Heaven thunder, “This is my dearly beloved Son with whom I am well pleased.”
To witness Him reach down to the adulteress with forgiveness, refusing to condemn her because who he saw in her terrified eyes was not the failure that the others saw. He saw a daughter. He saw the very reason He had come. He saw the world in her bruised face, with all of its hurt and pain, and the only response He knew in that moment was compassion.
To be present at the moment when the five loaves and two fish were lifted up in a simple gesture of appreciation, only for them to be multiplied to feed well over five thousand.
To fear for your life with Him in that boat out on the sea being broken by the waves, only for Him to stretch out His hand with the words, “Peace, be still!” and the waters obeyed.
And at the end of His life thirty three years later, to wait for Him in the garden as His sweat turned to blood.
To question Him mockingly if indeed He is the promised Son of God, only for Him to look deep into your soul and respond, “I AM, and you will see the Son of Man seated in a place of power at the right hand of God and coming on the clouds of Heaven!”
To see the pain on his mother’s face as he is torn apart at the post, knowing this was one load she could not take upon herself no matter how much she wanted to, and that only He could make all things new.
To watch as His disciple from among the crowds yelling, “Crucify Him!” as He stands whipped and disgraced before Pilate; for Him to pick your face out in the crowd and, though his lips do not move, you remember Him say, “Greater love hath no man than this — that he lay down his life for his friends.”
To be called upon to bear the cross with him on the road to Calvary; to stumble under its weight as you struggle onward together, wondering the true scale of the burden He bore.
To be the criminal crucified at his side, knowing the extent of your guilt, but daring to ask only that He remember you when He comes into his Kingdom; to feel His mercy and grace wash over you in that moment as He answers, “Amen I say to you today you will be with me in Paradise!”
To be there on Golgatha as Jesus breathed His last; to imagine what it meant in that moment for Him to take the sin of the world upon Himself and for the Father to turn His face away — a divine fissure so incomprehensible it shook the very foundations of the Trinity. Even, in spite of this, for Him to cry out on your behalf and beg, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
To be that centurion at the foot of the cross as the earthquake rocked the hillside and the sky went black; to look up at His bloodied face and believe for the first time, “Surely this man was the Son of God!”
And three dark days later, to mourn an empty tomb, begging the gardener to tell you where he had taken the body. To hear your name spoken and have your eyes opened, running to Him shouting, “Rabboni!”
To be gathered in secret behind locked doors as He appears in your midst; to touch the wounds in His hands and side, and to have all your doubts erased with the faith-filled words, “My Lord and my God!”
And, finally, to stand in awe as He is raised up to the place of highest honor in Heaven with arms lifted in blessing, “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
That and so much more is what makes Christmas special. It’s the beginning of the most extraordinary life that has ever been and ever will be. And the true beauty of His story is that Christ’s life means the same to us today as it did to those very same people that He touched while He was here on Earth. Though we can only imagine what it might have been like to live with Him then, we don’t have to imagine what it’s like to know Him now — as our savior and friend — because, after all, that’s the whole reason He came.
We cannot imagine all the places we’ll see Jesus because we’ll find Him everywhere we thought He wasn’t supposed to go. So look for Him in the lowly, seek Him in the simple, and spend your time in search of the timeless One. The greatest gift ever given is still there for all who are willing to reach out and take a hold of it. I wish you a truly special Christmas in the knowledge that you are loved by family and friends, even if you can’t be with them in person. Far more importantly, you are deeply loved by your Father in Heaven, who is always with you, and who would give His own Son, born to die, so that all creation might be reconciled to an eternity in His love!
