Wonder: a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.
Everything about the Christmas season is intended to stir our hearts with wonder. Commercials and the movies that play endlessly in December frame for us an expectation that Christmas is about perfect love and romance, families reunited, grown children coming home to their aging parents. The setting is always peaceful and harmonious with beautiful scenery, twinkling lights, and of course, a moving musical soundtrack playing in the background.
But the truth of the matter is these things are "counterfeit wonders." They are temporary at best and when stripped away leave us feeling lost and alone. Life changes, health crisis, loss of loved ones, the empty nest, can strip a heart once filled with wonder and excitement at the Christmas season, replacing wonder with sadness and dread.
No matter who you are and where your heart is right now, whether you are filled with wonder or are bereft of wonder, I would like to take a few moments to (hopefully) fill your hearts with the TRUE and lasting wonder of Christmas! Come with me on a brief journey to behold the wondrous truth of God becoming flesh.
John, the author of the gospel of John, opens up his testimony regarding Jesus with these words:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.
When the Apostle John speaks about The Word, he speaks of Jesus. Jesus was with God. Jesus was God. Jesus was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Jesus and without Jesus was not anything made that was made.
This Jesus of whom John speaks is no ordinary man. He is the Son of God Himself. As we ponder these stunning words of John, the realization dawns that everything that Scripture teaches us about God…Yahweh…the Holy One of Israel is true of Jesus. He is the transcendent God who was present at Creation. He is the One who walked with Adam and Eve in the Garden, the One that appeared to Moses in the burning bush, the one on Mt. Sinai in smoke and darkness.
The Bible opens with these words, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth!” John opens up his testament with In the beginning was the Word…and he is proclaiming that it was Jesus who was there speaking all of creation into existence!
If the truth that Jesus is the very God of heaven and earth…the very one who breathed the galaxies into existence doesn’t take your breath away with wonder, then perhaps these next words will.
And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
The God of creation took on flesh! The One who transcended all of creation, who stood far above and beyond the universe He created, He Himself entered into creation and took on human flesh. This is stunning! That God would condescend in such a way to make Himself known to His creation, should fill your heart with wonder…that feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.
For there is nothing more unexpected than the Son of God becoming man! Truly God and at the same time truly man!
There is nothing more beautiful, more inexplicable than the Creator of heaven and earth emptying Himself and become a vulnerable embryo embedded within a young virgin’s womb. There is nothing more surprising than…
the King of heaven becoming poor for our sakes,
the omnipresent God constraining Himself to time and space,
the omnipotent God becoming weak for our sakes,
the ALL-Sufficient God becoming dependent on human parents
the all-knowing God learning to learn like we learn…
He had to learn to walk, talk, to feed Himself.
He had to learn and study and memorize the very Scriptures
he had inspired holy men to write!
There is nothing more inexplicable than in His humanity
He learned through suffering…
He experienced weakness, fatigue, hunger, thirst.
He experienced temptation,
He lost friends to death,
He experienced betrayal and abandonment by his family and his disciples,
He was betrayed by His own people,
falsely accused, endured the mockery of a trial
which led to His death on the cross.
He faced the ultimate suffering…
forsaken by His heavenly Father
willingly taking on His Father’s wrath as He
bore our sins on the cross.
But this darkness brought about the greatest wonder of Christmas…the gift of salvation. There is not greater gift of love than what we see in God becoming man, taking on our sin and sorrow..bearing our just judgment for our rebellion against God.
1 John 4:9-10 “In this the love God was made manifest among us, that God sent His only Son into the world, so that we might live through Him. In this is love not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (atonement) for our sins.”
This is the true and lasting wonder of Christmas. When all else is stripped away and Christmas feels empty and lonely, this truth still remains: the Son of God became flesh and dwelt among us bringing us the gift of salvation through His death, burial, and resurrection. May your heart be stirred and filled with joy at the true wonder of Christmas. May you not just be filled with wonder at the gift that God has made available to you, but may you believe that it is true, receive it by faith, and take this gift and make it your own.
"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." (John 1:12-13)
I pray that all of your life will daily be filled with the true and lasting wonder that the Christmas season celebrates.
Merry Christmas!
Cherié
Post a Comment