Two thousand years ago God added a new letter to our alphabet in the Virgin
Conception. God had to add a new letter because no existing letter could spell
Immanuel, which means God with us. Therefore, if you want to find Christmas you’ll
have to journey beyond zebra.
Do you want to get the most ever out of Christmas? Then forget – at least for a while – what’s out there to buy for others, or what’s out there for others to buy for us, and spend time focusing on the people who normally cross our paths during the Christmas holidays. Paul shows us exactly how to make that happen. Prepare yourself for something extraordinary.
A famous Canadian preacher wrote: Words fail when we try to articulate in theology and worship our deepest feelings about the awesome, transcendent majesty of Almighty God. Is it possible that a God like that could have been in Bethlehem’s manger? In stark reality, are we to believe that God was there in that ancient place in some special and unique way? Shockingly, Jesus came into His own world in complete obscurity, in fact, with such obscurity that we are compelled to ask: Where does God fit in, and does it really make sense to fit such an obscure figure into our own lives?
The celebration of the first noel and the anticipation of the last noel are closely connected. Both events teach the same truth — and what is that truth? God has his hand on human history and your place in it. Both the first and last noels teach us that God has not abandoned us, that God is not ignoring us, that God has a plan and a purpose and that He’s inviting us to get plugged into that plan and purpose. You may not know what tomorrow will bring, but you don’t have to be afraid. You may have no idea how things are going to turn out, but you don’t have to be afraid. You may be headed into unknown territory but you don’t have to be afraid.