What type of image of Jesus does Christmas bring to mind? For most of us it is the image of the Baby Jesus, born in Bethlehem, born to the Virgin Mary in a cattle stall, tended to by His adoptive father Joseph, and placed gently into a manger, surrounded by the livestock and visited by the shepherds.
And this is all true; these images are accurate, this little vulnerable Baby, a gift from God, in His swaddling clothes.
But what other images might we have?
Hold that thought for a moment and tell - me how do you imagine God? The One who is "mighty to save"? How do you picture the Almighty? He who opened the Red Sea? Who led the Israelites with the pillar of fire? Who's words rumbled to Moses?
He who created all existence by the mighty word of His mouth? For in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....and God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light...and God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” ...and God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” [1]
And on and on throughout creation, God - God Almighty - fashioned the world with a power, a might, an authority over nature that we cannot begin to understand...in the beginning...
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.[2]
Yes, this same little Baby was God Almighty, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, suddenly, willingly, confined inside one of Earth's most fragile creatures - a human baby. God the Father, yes, gave us the gift of His Son; but, please remember, God the Son gave up all of Heaven for us as well.
~~~~~~~~~~
And beyond what happened in the world that Mary and Joseph and the shepherds could see, amazing and wondrous and horrific things were happening in the spiritual realms. The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the desert to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:
and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers,
who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;
they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.
Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
because he knows that his time is short.”
When the dragon saw that he had been hurled to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child...then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to make war against the rest of her offspring—those who obey God’s commandments and hold to the testimony of Jesus. [3]
The Christmas story we all know and love, the one from the Peanuts' Special and thousands of children's pageants is true. But there is more, much more, to the height, breadth, and depth of the love God displayed on that first Christmas. There was a battle that began, that still rages, but with victory assured!
The Reminders have this incredible song about that night, When the Baby Cried.
[2]John 1:1-2
[3] from Revelation 12
Unless other wise noted, all Scripture is taken from The Holy Bible; New International Version - 1984, Zondervan
