The
Christmas season is upon us already. For some, it feels like it could never get
here, for some, it arrived like a thief in the night; you blinked and suddenly
it was here. As I found myself thinking about Christmas and all that goes into
the Christmas season, I found myself thinking about the hope of the restoration
of the world that is imbedded in Christmas.
You feel it pulsing in the great hymns of Christmas. “No
more let sin and sorrow reign, and thorns, infest the ground’, declares
‘Joy to the World’ “His law is love and his gospel peace, chains he shall
break, and in his name, oppression shall cease” ‘O Holy Night’ reminds us.
“Peace on earth and mercy mild God and sinners reconciled. Light and life to
all he brings ris’n with healing in his wings Mild he lays his glory by,
born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth born to give
them second birth” announces ‘Hark the Herald Angels Sing’.
This hope is announced in many of
the great Christmas prophecies, and is seen most clearly in Isaiah 11, where we
are told, “there
shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots
shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him”. We’re
told that He will be the perfect judge who will set everything right, and in
that day “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. I find myself longing for
that day when everything is put right. But here’s a question. Why is it that we
instinctively look forward to this restoration? Man has been living for
millennia, and the cycle is the same, you live, you struggle, you die, you
become fertilizer for the plants, the animals eat the plants, and so on; it’s
the “circle of life”. But, when we look around, we know instinctively that this
isn’t the way things are supposed to be. My grandfather is nearing his death,
he’s in hospice now, and I’ve been going to Vermont to visit him, and as I
have, I’ve been faced with this painful reminder, this is not how God designed
things to be. We were not designed to live 50, 60, 70, 80 or so years, and then
fade. We weren’t designed to pass away, and be lost in the sands of time. We
were made to know God, and bear his image to the ends of the earth, living
forever in his presence. But since we rebelled in the garden and turned to our
own way, losing our true home, that place of perfect relationship with God;
everything has been broken. We look around and know that something is wrong, we
feel it in our bones. Something is wrong with every one of us, and the world we
live in. Romans 8 tells us that all creation has been groaning, it is subject
to futility and it longs for the day it is set free.
And the hope of Christmas is that
all will be put right. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of the one who can
and will put everything right. At Christmas, what we celebrate is the birth of
the king of kings and lord of Lords. Holy God became man. The baby in the
manger is not just a baby, he’s God enflseshed, "Veiled in flesh the
Godhead see hail the incarnate deity". Christmas represents the beginning
of this restoration. He came, to take our place before the wrath of God,
breaking the chains of sin, and restoring us to relationship with God if we
place our faith in Him. And he did this so that someday, he can come and
destroy sin and death, without destroying us. This is the promise of Christmas
for all, if we place our faith in him. As his people, we can look forward to
the reality that someday, he will right the world completely. He will
come again not as a baby, but as Lord before whom all creation will bow, and he
will set the world right. In that day, the wolf and lamb will lie together,
there will be no more sorrow, or sin, no more decay, and sickness and death,
instead, what we will find is joy unimaginable as we live in the presence of
king, and live and work in his restored, perfected world, knowing God, and
being known by God. The creation will groan no more, the horrible broken circle
will be destroyed, and we will live for all eternity in the presence of the one
before whom no brokenness stands.
When you think about Christmas,
think on this, remember this! At Christmas, we look back, but we look forward
too, remembering what it means for our lives, and for our eternity. Christ has
come, and Christ will come again, and on that day, he will restore the world,
and we will find that forever, we have the true home we have always longed for.
This Christmas, as you go about your business, keep this at the forefront of
your mind.
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