As we enter this
Christmas season, I hope that the church puts this story into its larger
context: the story of redemption.
Christmas is the celebration of God bringing His story to a climax by
entering the story Himself to reverse the curse. Too often, we break all the images and pieces
of the story into their individual components and miss the true joy, the true
comfort that this event offers us. Henri
Nouwen says it better than I can when he writes:
“Christmas is saying ‘yes’ to a hope based on God’s initiative, which has nothing to do with what I think or feel. Christmas is believing that the salvation of the world is God’s work, not mine. Things will never look just right or feel just right. If they did, someone would be lying…But it is into this broken world that a child is born who is called Son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, Savior.”
Let us start the
Advent season here - in a story in which God sends His Son to mend the
brokenness. Let us put all the pieces
back into place and see the story for the grand (true) epic that it is!