Merry Christmas!
All of creation moaned in labor pains.
Sin had entered the world, and for the first time, Adam and Eve fell down and felt the pain of a skinned knee. Their stomachs growled in hunger for the first time. And for the first time, more painfully, they were separated from the God who had given them breath. All was not as it should be, but was broken, crushed, under the weight of sin.
Yet, a promise was made. Before the first headache, anxious thought, or stumped toe, God, great in kindness, planned to send help. This was not just any help, and even the word help lacks much in explanation. God Himself would step down from heaven to tabernacle among us, not to relieve us from the effects of sin but to rescue us from depths of darkness; the sin that is so engrained us within that we have no merit on which to be redeemed. God came to us. In our wandering and our failure, the Creator God would come to us.
I can’t help but be completely overwhelmed with the thought today. The pregnant pause of creation and the aching of the world to be made right again would be realized in a tiny crying baby on a not-so-quiet night. It was a town that was not His parents’ home and a barn that was not familiar. People were everywhere. The census was being taken and the Feast of Tabernacle was in full swing. The very Messiah that the feast celebrated had been born a few blocks over, and the only people who knew were the lowest of society. They weren’t at the festival partying with the synagogue leaders. They were in the fields watching sheep. The Savior was here! All of creation let out a sigh of relief, and the only people who heard it were those that weren’t seeking to listen.
Yet, this baby’s birth would not be a celebration if His work on the cross had not been the very pinnacle of all of history. Christmas is not just a birthday party, but a reminder of the promise that Jesus would indeed return to this broken world to make all things right for good. God’s people waited anxiously for His entrance into the world, and now we wait with pregnant pause as a woman in labor for His return. May we not forget the promise that Jesus came to rescue from sin, and will return to triumph over it forever. I long for the day that creation will be what it was meant to be from the beginning and all things will fulfill their purpose to bring Him glory. May we wait in anticipation for His return as we celebrate His birth today.
Merry Christmas!