It seems to me that the older I get the more time I spend looking back on the hard core truth of Jesus' birth each year during Christmas. I find my mind wondering to that stable more and more throughout the month of December than I used to. My thoughts are of the complexity of the situation, the reality of what it means for me and you, and the sheer celebration of God taking on flesh.
The biggest thing that has slammed me over the head this year is how the Christmas story, the day Jesus was born, plays into God's grand story for the redemption of his people. In one of the best children's bibles out there THE JESUS STORYBOOK BIBLE, Sally Lloyd-Jones does a phenomenal job of explaining this. Throughout the entire book each story leads to Jesus. Each failure is going to be redeemed one day by a baby that is sent into the world. Every single story in the bible points to Jesus.
It is always about Jesus.
It is always about the world being redeemed through a Savior sent to the world.
Recently in a sermon at church, our pastor, Matt was talking about the three theological steps that every believer needs to take to truly grasp the gravity of Christmas. When he talked about the second step it was as if a light bulb went off in my head. I knew what he was saying, I believed what he was saying, and I had heard what he was saying before, but this time God pressed it on my heart greater than ever before. Matt said that when Jesus was born it was all a part of God's redemption story for man from sin. You see, God has promised that sin would not prevail and that death would not win, and when Jesus was born it was as if God had truly kept his word. What he said would happen, did in fact happen.
Jesus was born.
Death and sin would not win.
Jesus was our rescuer.
This concept is surely not new to me, but this Christmas season I have not stopped thinking about what it meant for us when Jesus was born. It wasn't just that God sent his son, and that he was conceived to a virgin, but that he was our hero. He beat out sin and death. Our lives are not the same because he was born.
This month I have prayed over my children “Thank you God for sending your son Jesus so that sin and death will not win. You promised you would send a rescuer and you did just that when Jesus was born. Thank you for keeping your promise.”
Christmas in the Valley of Vision: Gift of Gifts from The Austin Stone on Vimeo.
