Those who know me personally know that I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Many of my favorite childhood memories involve Christmas, especially the year our extended Asplund family celebrated the season in my Asplund grandparent's farmhouse in Wilton, North Dakota, including the visit of Santa Claus (in the person of Uncle Leonard). My own family celebrated Christmas as a wonderful family event every year, making Christmas largely about quality time together as a family.
But I also have a deep love for the image of the Christ child. It's not just that I love babies and families. Just the thought of the eternal Word of God, God's One-and-Only, being poured into humanity as a tender, vulnerable, dependent human baby, born to a poor family under very difficult and dangerous circumstances, always truly amazes me. And the details were designed by God very specifically, with special mention made to the shepherds that the sign they were to look for was a baby lying in a feed trough.
It was the prophet Isaiah, in the context of a prophetic encounter with the Jewish king Ahaz, that promised, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel" (7:14). The promise of this special birth and the child's name was the profound mystery that with the birth, God would be with us, our Immanuel. God has always desired intimate, personal, familial relationships with human beings, but the human tendency to reject God and to attempt to live independently from God has consistently blocked that holy desire. It was necessary for God to take the initiative, and to do it in such a way as to reveal the heart, desire, and character of our God.
And so God came, as a tiny baby, offering the most basic example of a deep, personal relationship. And to emphasize the point, a host of angelic messengers and singers announced the birth to lowly shepherds, watching over a flock of sheep somewhere in the field. It wasn't just that they were at the bottom of the cultural totem pole, they were shepherds, chosen to welcome the Chief Shepherd of all God's sheep into the world of human beings. Can you imagine what it would have been like to be one of these shepherds, not only to see but also potentially to touch, maybe even to hold him in your arms? Mary's baby boy? God's Son?
From that moment to the present, God has revealed himself most clearly in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, our Immanuel, our Yeshua. Jesus put a face on God. Jesus perfectly revealed the person and heart of God. Jesus was a living invitation from God to turn to him and receive reconciliation and restoration. The angels said it so well. "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.... Glory to God in the highest, and peace, goodwill toward men" (Luke 2:10, 14). The baby Immanuel was God's perfect expression of joy, peace, and goodwill, with a clear desire to live in an eternal relationship as a result of the coming of his Son.
As a result, as a result of the resurrection and ascension of Jesus the Messiah, the Anointed King, he is continually with us. I love how the apostle Paul always emphasized the present reality of Jesus as the center of our faith. In fact, when showing that the members of God's family were equally valued by God with no favoritism or partiality, Paul's reason was simply, "Christ is all and in all" (Colossians 3:11). Because Christ is still with us, we are each one the Father's favored child, the little brothers and sisters of the King, now and forever. All we need to do is turn our hearts to God and say, "Yes" to the invitation, to embrace God's Immanuel as our Savior and Lord, and find our new place in God's eternal family.
It is for that reason that we not only say, "Merry Christmas" this year. We boldly and joyfully confess:
The King has Come
The King is Coming
God is With us!
