Each person in scripture was given a promise: not of an immediate shift in their fortunes, but a bigger-picture assurance. The promise is that God is with us, so everything is gonna be all right. We will tell stories where things didn’t have to be perfect right then — it would become perfect in the future.
Christmas is a promise. That promise is simple: God has come. God will win. Glory to the highest heaven! At least we know, everything is gonna be all right.
Christmas is a promise. That promise is simple: God has come. God will win. Glory to the highest heaven! At least we know, everything is gonna be all right.
November 28The angels knew Jesus from the moment they were created, before there was an earth. They exist outside of time and space and yet they entered into our experience to say “Do not be afraid,” because they know that everything is gonna be all right.
December 12In the experience of the wise men, we witness what the rest of the world could have done in response to Christ’s arrival. They didn’t know the stories or the promises of the Old Testament, and yet they could still receive the incredible grace of God with us, in the flesh. Here is the good news of Christmas: it is the message to the whole world that everything is gonna be all right.
December 26Christmas is the reverse of our normal human patterns. Usually the parents are convincing the newborn child crying: “Hush, hush, it’s going to be okay.” This time, it is the little child who is crying to the world, proclaiming that in the end, everything is gonna be all right.
|
December 5Zechariah and Elizabeth know the promise of the Old Testament as deeply as any childhood bedtime story. Yet when God’s promise was revealed to them in a very personal way, they each responded differently. They knew the promise of God, that everything is gonna be all right, yet it took a real-life experience of God’s presence for them to take hold of it for themselves.
December 19The shepherds, apart from Mary and Joseph, have the best seats in the house to witness the arrival of Christ. How incredible must it have been to witness Christmas like they did! The truth is, this is the scriptural legacy we are invited to follow in our own lives. is We are called to be witnesses to Christmas and to then tell the story.
|