For many people, Christmas often marks the passage of time as much as it commemorates a holy event. This time last year, a loved one was still alive. This time two years ago, hope was kindled with a new relationship, one that didn't last. This time ten years ago, the children were younger and seemingly easy to please with gifts and traditions. This time two decades ago, grandchildren were just a dream and now they run underfoot. This time five years ago, he proposed by the Christmas tree.
But Christmas has always been about the passage of time. For centuries, people marked time, looking for the arrival of their Savior. Then one day, Jesus was born. On that day, His countdown to the cross began with his first wail of life. It's hard to imagine the One who endured the shame of the crucifixion once being helpless Himself, dependent on others to feed and clothe Him. While it was good news that He had finally arrived, it would be nothing to celebrate if Jesus hadn't completed His mission and finished what He was born here to do.
At the cross, therefore, we find a love story. As Dennis Johnson writes in Counsel from the Cross, "The holy sovereign Lord whose authority we have defied and whose glory we have deflected to unworthy rivals was willing to endure the judgment that his own impeccable justice pronounced upon us. The cross declares that we are loved with an intensity that defies our capacity to comprehend, not because we are intrinsically lovable but because God is intrinsically love."
The wonder of Christmas morning is not the pile of presents that await us. It's not the family and friends that have gathered with us to celebrate. It's not the lengthy list of blessings we can recount from the year prior. Those are all tremendous aspects of the holiday, but the inestimable treasure is that we are loved with an intensity that defies our capacity to comprehend by the One who is intrinsically love.
That is my meditation this Christmas. I pray it ministers to you, as well.
Merry Christmas! I will see you here again in the new year, Lord willing.
dear friend!
what a beautiful post. to be loved by the Living God...amazing!!
Posted by: aban | December 22, 2009 at 08:13 AM
Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Not might.
Not trying to.
Not hopefully.
Not makes it possible to.
Mary will have a son.
The world shall call, "Jesus".
For this Jesus is about to save His people from their sins in about 30-ish years or so.
"It is finished." How beautiful are those three words.
Posted by: Joseph Louthan | December 22, 2009 at 11:45 AM