Christmas has been called a season of wonder, and for good reason. Angels appearing bringing messages from the Creator of all things. Virgin births, visitors from far distant places bearing gifts fit for a king to give to a tiny baby asleep in a humble manger. Predictions of coming heartbreak and of a king who would save his people. And our minds struggle to grasp what these thing mean and how they could even be. We try to take experiences we have had and apply them to new happenings as a way to make sense of it all
One possible way to understand these happenings was proffered by Hans Urs von Balthasar in his book, Light of the World: “Christmas is not an event within history but is rather the invasion of time by eternity.” Can it be any wonder than we struggle understand this cosmic wonder? None of have ever seen or experienced eternity, let alone grasp how Eternity invading time and space makes sense.
The wonder didn’t stop with his birth, though. It continued in his life and teachings and what he taught us about how the Eternal Word sees and understands humanity. As Mark Shea points out, long before Jesus taught his disciples the mysteries of the Eucharist, he taught them the He was present to them in the Least of These. St. John Chrysostom put it this way: “If you don’t see Jesus present in the beggar at the church door, you shall not find him in the chalice.”
This season, as you ponder the mystery of eternity invading space and time, let us not fail to see the greater mystery of how Jesus sees us and how he is present in the faces of all those we will see and encounter during our life.
PRAYER: Father, let us ponder the wonder of Eternity coming to earth and of the great mystery of how you are present in not just the great and mighty, but the poor and beggar. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Copyright 2023 by Galen C. Dalrymple. All right reserved.
Isaiah 7:14 (ESV) Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
This is a story of impossibilities. Consider the impossibilities Mary faced in this story: She is a virgin and pregnant — she is having a child while she is a virgin. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen! Joseph has to follow through on the marriage after he discovers Mary is pregnant. Impossible! Mary must avoid being stoned to death when the neighbors hear the news. Impossible!
Consider the impossibility Elizabeth faced. She was well past the childbearing age, and yet God says she is going to conceive and bear a child. This impossible news left old Zechariah speechless. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen!
This is a story of biblical impossibilities. But, what are the impossibilities in our world? What would you label “impossible” in your life? Peace in our world. Impossible! No way! Won’t happen! Christian values returning to our nation, morality becoming the norm? Impossible! Our church reaching our surrounding community and making our world different? Impossible! Restoring relationships, healing past hurts in our lives. A relative or friend entering a relationship with Christ. Breaking an addiction and overcoming past hurts and disappointments? Impossible!
We find ourselves with the same troubled mind as Mary, wondering over the impossible (v. 29). We even ask the same question Mary asked, “How will this be?” (v. 34). To us it seems impossible! No way! Won’t happen! The real question for people today is “How can the impossible become possible?”
PRAYER: God, for all who need to believe in the impossible this day, during this season, may they find the hope they need in You! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
In the person of Jesus Christ, two worlds met. One was the visible world populated by men and women, boys and girls, animals and minerals. It was an old and tired world – worn down by millennia of suffering and pain. It was a world that was in desperate need of hope, or a hand to lift it up once again. It seemed, to those who were looking, as if it were the older of the two worlds, but it wasn’t. The other world was populated by God and Satan, angels and demons, principalities and powers. And contrary to popular opinion, it was by far the older of the two worlds. Yet it, too, had been waiting. It, too, had been agonizing over the fallenness of the visible world of humans.
But at the manger, the two worlds met in the Person of Jesus. All the promises of the Old Testament, beginning in the garden of Eden, found their “Yes” and “Amen!” in the New Testament and the Incarnation. And after so long of a wait, as Michael Card put it in Immanuel – Reflections on the Life of Christ – “It was good news to finally be able to embrace the Promised One. But far and away the best news of all is that He embraces us. That was the reason for His coming. Most of us describe our coming to faith by saying, ‘I’ve asked Jesus into my life.’ We should really say He has invited us into His life.
“That was the reason for Simeon’s song. Deep inside his tired old heart, he knew that the infant he held in his arms was in truth the One who had been holding him all his life long.”
As you run headlong into this holiday season, how is your world intersecting with Christianity? Do their paths cross in visible ways, or are you trying to keep your faith hidden from sight? The two worlds meet in each of us who are disciples. Which one will you show to the world this Christmas?
Luke 5:32 (NLT) – I have come to call sinners to turn from their sins, not to spend my time with those who think they are already good enough.
PRAYER: Thank you, God, for caring about us! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Luke 2:25-32 (NLT) – At that time there was a man in Jerusalem named Simeon. He was righteous and devout and was eagerly waiting for the Messiah to come and rescue Israel. The Holy Spirit was upon him and had revealed to him that he would not die until he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. That day the Spirit led him to the Temple. So when Mary and Joseph came to present the baby Jesus to the Lord as the law required, Simeon was there. He took the child in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, now let your servant die in peace, as you have promised. I have seen your salvation, which you have prepared for all people. He is a light to reveal God to the nations, and he is the glory of your people Israel!”
“We were the only family with children in the restaurant. I sat Erik in a highchair and noticed everyone was quietly sitting and talking. Suddenly, Erik squealed with glee and said, ‘Hi.’ He pounded his fat baby hands on the highchair tray. His eyes were crinkled in laughter and his mouth was bared in a toothless grin, as he wriggled and giggled with merriment.
“I looked around and saw the source of his merriment. It was a man whose pants were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would-be shoes. His shirt was dirty, and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were too short to be called a beard and his nose was so varicose it looked like a road map.
“We were too far from him to smell, but I was sure he smelled. His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. ‘Hi there, baby; hi there, big boy. I see ya, buster,’ the man said to Erik.
“My husband and I exchanged looks, ‘What do we do?’
“Erik continued to laugh and answer, ‘Hi.’
“Everyone in the restaurant noticed and looked at us and then at the man. The old geezer was creating a nuisance with my beautiful baby. Our meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, ‘Do ya patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek- a-boo.’
“Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk.
“My husband and I were embarrassed. We ate in silence; all except for Erik, who was running through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated with his cute comments.
“We finally got through the meal and headed for the door. My husband went to pay the check and told me to meet him in the parking lot. The old man sat poised between me and the door. ‘Lord, just let me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik,’ I prayed. As I drew closer to the man, I turned my back trying to sidestep him and avoid any air he might be breathing. As I did, Erik leaned over my arm, reaching with both arms in a baby’s ‘pick-me-up’ position. Before I could stop him, Erik had propelled himself from my arms to the man.
“Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby consummated their love and kinship. Erik in an act of total trust, love, and submission laid his tiny head upon the man’s ragged shoulder. The man’s eyes closed, and I saw tears hover beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain, and hard labor, cradled my baby’s bottom and stroked his back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.
“I stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms and his eyes opened and set squarely on mine. He said in a firm commanding voice, ‘You take care of this baby.’
“Somehow I managed, ‘I will,’ from a throat that contained a stone.
“He pried Erik from his chest, lovingly and longingly, as though he were in pain. I received my baby, and the man said, ‘God bless you, ma’am, you’ve given me my Christmas gift.’
“I said nothing more than a muttered thanks. With Erik in my arms, I ran for the car. My husband was wondering why I was crying and holding Erik so tightly, and why I was saying, ‘My God, my God, forgive me.’
“I had just witnessed Christ’s love shown through the innocence of a tiny child who saw no sin, who made no judgment; a child who saw a soul, and a mother who saw a suit of clothes. I was a Christian who was blind, holding a child who was not. I felt it was God asking, ‘Are you willing to share your son for a moment?’ when He shared His for all eternity. How did God feel when he put his baby in our arms 2000 years ago?
“The ragged old man, unwittingly, had reminded me, ‘To enter the Kingdom of God, we must become as little children.'” – Author Unknown
You and I are the smelly, dirty man in this story. And wonder of wonders, God has entrusted his son to us.
PRAYER: Thank You, Father, for entrusting Your Son into our arms so long ago and even yet today! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Socrates taught for 40 years, Plato for 50, Aristotle for 40, and Jesus for only 3. Yet the influence of Christ’s 3-year ministry infinitely transcends the impact left by the combined 130 years of teaching from these men, who were among the greatest philosophers of all antiquity.
Jesus painted no pictures yet some of the finest paintings of Raphael, Michelangelo, and Leonardo da Vinci received their inspiration from him. Jesus wrote no poetry but Dante, Milton, and scores of the world’s greatest poets were inspired by him. Jesus built no buildings but St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome and Notre Dame in Paris are some of the most beautiful buildings in the world, Jesus composed no music still Haydn, Handel, Beethoven, Bach, and Mendelssohn reached their highest perfection of melody in the hymns, symphonies, and oratorios they composed in his praise. Every sphere of human greatness has been enriched by this humble Carpenter of Nazareth.
His unique contribution to humanity is the salvation of the soul! Philosophy could not accomplish that. Nor art. Nor literature. Nor music. Only Jesus Christ can break the enslaving chains of sin. He alone can speak peace to the human heart, strengthen the weak, and give life to those who are spiritually dead.
It is one thing to talk about the impact of Jesus on the world, but the far more important question is: how have you let him impact you? Why was his impact so great? Because he was not just another human, but Lord of all Creation!
As great as his impact when he came as a babe in a manger has been, when he returns it will be even greater. We need to be ready!
PRAYER: Father, we thank you for Jesus and pray that we’ll be wise enough to not just let him impact our lives, but to be Lord of our lives! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Isaiah 40:1-2: “Comfort my people” says our God. “Comfort them! Encourage the people of Jerusalem. Tell them they have suffered long enough and their sins are now forgiven. I have punished them in full for all their sins.”
I used to live where it snowed. One of the strongest and most stirring of my childhood memories is to walk alone in the dark in freshly fallen snow and hear the sound of the footsteps crunching the white wonder stuff under my feet. Then, sometimes, I’d stop and listen. You can’t hear the snowfall. The world was white and quiet – not a sound except my breathing.
In one sense, these words that God spoke were fulfilled with the return of some of the exiles from Babylon about 200 years after He spoke them. But not really and truly. They foresaw the coming of the baby in the manger and the life and death he would live.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the last words of God to Jesus before he shrank down to become a human embryo weren’t along these lines: “Comfort my people! Comfort them!” That’s what this day is all about – how God reached out to His people who were distressed and like sheep had gone astray. How His great heart must have been broken to see so much pain and misery in us! And as Jesus left the courts of heaven, God gave him this one final charge and message: “Comfort my people!”
Today you can choose to reject God’s comfort and to beat yourself senseless over your failures and faults. Goodness knows, we all have enough failings – we don’t have to look very hard or very long to find them, do we? Or you can accept His comfort.
Listen to the words of God to Jesus: “Comfort my people!” Did you hear that? Listen to His voice. It was first heard as the cry of a baby in a manger that echoed, not just within the walls of the stable, but throughout the universe and inside the heart of the Father. To some, it may have just sounded like another baby crying, but to those who really knew what was going on, they clearly heard the message from the lips of the God in the manger: “I love you! I am with you! Be comforted!”
Let Him comfort you tonight – then do your part to comfort those who need His comfort and as you do, you’ll become a little more like Him.
PRAYER: May we find comfort in Your love and welcome this day! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
One of my favorite Christmas songs is Mary, Did You Know?by the vocal group, Pentatonix. (If you’ve not heard it, click on the song title above.)
Apparently, some time back the author of the song caught some heat for posing the question. I think that’s unfortunate. Sure, there were some things she knew because the angel had told her: Luke 1:30-33 (NLT2) – “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
We don’t know if the angel said more than that, but if that’s what Mary knew, there was a great deal she didn’t know. Bear in mind that Mary almost certainly had the mindset of a typical Jewish girl of the first century. The Messiah (which means “anointed”) was to be a deliverer and sit on the throne of David. My guess is that was what Mary understood…that he would rescue his people, Israel. I don’t know that they even had a concept of what the “son of the Most High” meant – that he was literally the SON of God/God from everlasting to everlasting. She may have understood that to mean that he would be very close to God and would be greatly exalted – but that he was Divine? I doubt that she understood that in the beginning – but certainly by the time of the miracle of turning water into wine she’d come to expect them miraculous from him. But even then, Elijah, Moses, Elisha and others had performed miracles, too. And the term, Son of Man which was applied to Christ was also applied to Ezekiel (5:5-8).
What Mary couldn’t have understood (I don’t think) was that “his people” meant much more than Israel. It meant those of every tongue, nation and tribe that would put their faith in him to be their deliverer and ruler, too. She couldn’t have understood at the time of the Visitation that he would walk on water, give sight to the blind, heal the lame, that he had walked where angels trod or that he’d bring the dead back to life.
To me this song plumbs the depths of the questions that must have run through Mary’s mind as she submitted herself to the will of God. She was human, after all. And I think she was probably as amazed as others at what it mean to give birth to the Son of the Most High.
At Christmas, it is a good time for us to ask ourselves what it means for us to submit ourselves to this One born of the virgin nearly 2000 years ago. If we think we know all the answers to that question, I suspect we’re probably as wrong as Mary likely was before Jesus took up his ministry. Let us dig deeply into the questions of what we think we know of Jesus. He’s beyond our comprehension.
PRAYER: Jesus, teach us gently as our limited minds cannot grasp your greatness! Fill us with eternal wonder now and forever! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
I was in Costco recently and I was standing in the checkout line when I noticed two young boys (about 8 years old) who were standing in the next line. Behind them was a man who had a large stuffed tiger in his shopping basket. The boys were enthralled, and the joy on the man’s face of knowing how his child would love having the stuffed tiger was evident. For some little child, Christmas this year may come in the shape of that stuffed tiger.
In Lion and Lamb, Brennan Manning wrote: “Jesus does not dominate my life. Any tree in my path seems to have more power than he, if only because it forces me to walk around it…what would life be like if Christ did rule in me? If during Advent my primary concern were His Kingdom? …What shape would Advent and Christmas take, if Jesus really RULED in me?
“If He did, that is, if my faith were deep, burning, powerful and passionate, my life would be very different. My self-esteem would cease to be based upon the worldly values of possessions, prestige, status, and privilege, and upon the group solidarities of family, race, class, religion, and nation. For to make these my supreme values is to have nothing in common with Jesus. With burning faith I would speak of Jesus not as some distant being but as a close friend with whom I have a personal relationship. The invisible world would become more real than the visible, the world of what I see, Christ more real than myself.
“…It stands to reason that if during the Advent season we relegate Jesus and what He stands for to second place on our scale of values, then we have already denied Him and what He stands for. Either you accept the Kingdom of Jesus understood it or you don’t. You cannot serve two masters.”
Jesus came not only to save you, but to make you different. To transform your mind (Rom 12:2) – Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
To the extent that Jesus rules in us, our lives will take the shape of His not just at Christmas, but all year long. What shape will your Christmas take this year?
PRAYER: We are prone to think of You more during this season, Lord, and to forget about you for much of the rest of the year. We invite you to shape our lives to fully conform to Yours! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Arriving at the offices of the Society they were led up a flight of stairs to a waiting room. After a few minutes they heard someone else climbing the stairs. It was the young student mother whose baby was to be adopted. She was met by the lady responsible for the adoption arrangements and taken into another room. Our friends heard a muffled conversation and a few minutes later footsteps on the stairs as the young mother left. They heard her convulsive sobbing until the front door of the office was closed. Then, there was silence.
The lady in charge then conducted them next door. In a little crib was a six-week-old baby boy. On a chair beside it was a brown paper bag containing a change of clothes and two letters. One of these, addressed to the new parents, thanked them for providing a home for her baby and acknowledged that under the terms of the adoption each would never know the other’s identity. Then the young mother added one request. Would they allow her little son to read the other letter on his eighteenth birthday? She assured them that she had not included any information about her identity. The couple entrusted that letter to a lawyer and one day the young man will read the message which his mother wrote on the day when with breaking heart, she parted with him.
I wonder what she wrote? If I had to condense all I feel about life and love into a few precious words what would I say? I would have no time for trivia. I would not be concerned about economics, politics, the weather, the size of house or the type of car. At such a time I would want to dwell on the profundities, on what life was all about and what things were absolutely essential.
About 2000 years ago, God wrapped all there was to know or say about love in swaddling clothes and put him in a manger. Jesus is the most exquisite love letter ever written.It is God’s great desire that all will read that love letter and come to know Him.
PRAYER: Father, thank you for the message and person of Jesus that revealed your love to struggling humanity! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
The Christmas story begins in darkness. There was the darkness of oppression, for God’s people were a conquered people. They were a beaten and a defeated people. There was the darkness of persecution. Indeed, it was a despised universal taxation that brought the participants in the story together on that fateful night. There was the darkness of disillusionment. There was an ever-increasing number who felt that violence, not faith, was the most effective path. Yes, on that first Christmas, the mood was one of despair and resignation.
And thus, it was then and thus it is now. We too live in a world of darkness. There are wars and rumors of wars, hunger and unemployment, racism, loneliness, and a sense of emptiness. Perhaps the poet Robert Frost worded it best when he wrote: “I have been acquainted with the night. I have walked in the rain and out of the rain. I have been acquainted with the night.” I don’t have to tell any of you about the darkness, because in one form or another, at one time or another, it has touched the life of every human. You have been acquainted with the night. Thus, we do not come to this season to naively deny the existence of the darkness. Nowhere in scripture do we receive a prep talk and an argument that things aren’t really as bad as they seem. Rather, it affirms that the darkness is real and it is present.
But, it also affirms that there is a light at the end of the tunnel as the Light of the world entered the darkness not for himself, but for us. The darkness has not been able to shut down that light and it never, every will throughout all eternity!
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for seeing us in the darkness and for having compassion on us. Thank you for being the very embodiment of light! In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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