The Calendar Turns

And the calendar turns to yet another Christmas season, along with the New Year holiday and a general slowing down of the normal routine of life…school, work, and the ordinary…in favor of glitter, gifts, travel, baking & cooking, and family get-togethers.  On our part of the globe, the season is also marked by short days, long nights, and in many cases cold and dreary weather.  We are more susceptible to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) and the effects of being cooped up inside all the time.  Sometimes, that manifests as a kind of depression; sometimes as violence; sometimes it’s masked and no one knows.

I say those things to say this:  If you’re like Charlie Brown in “A Charlie Brown Christmas,” and just don’t feel like celebrating…just don’t feel in the spirit of Christmas, you’re not alone.  Amidst all of the glitter and lights and happiness of the season (and the joy of the season is genuine, no doubt) comes a darker side that is common with mankind and the world.

The world was in the same condition some 2,000 years ago when a baby was born in the city of Bethlehem in what was then Judea.  Whether the actual birth happened at night, like so many believe, or in the daytime is really immaterial.  Whether there were three wise men or more (or less) is immaterial.  Exactly what kind of celestial phenomenon the star was that guided them to the child is immaterial.  And whether 10 baby boys or 100 baby boys were killed by Herod in an attempt to do away with the new king is immaterial.

What is absolutely material is that at that instant, on that day, something changed.  Something changed for the world.  Something changed for mankind.  More than one writer of the Bible talks about that change.  John says it well when he says that, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Paul expands on that, and says that even though the Christ “existed in the form of God, he emptied himself…and being made in the likeness of men.”  The angel who visited the shepherds said, “Unto you is born this day in the Cityof David a savior, which is Christ the Lord.

Isaiah said, hundreds of years prior to the actual event, “For unto us a child is born; unto us a son is given.  And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”  And even Adam and Eve caught a glimpse of the wondrous event when God, driving them out of the garden, told the serpent, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.”

So now, even though there is still a kind of combo platter of emotions, behaviors, and thoughts that come during the holiday season, there is also hope, peace, and true joy for the one who calls upon the name of that baby boy born so long ago, who lived, died, and now lives again.  We can indeed have hope.  We can indeed live with joy.  We can indeed be at peace.  Because he has done for us what we could not do for ourselves…reconcile us to the God of the universe, and cause our adoption as sons and daughters of the Most High God.  Merry Christmas everyone!