I was watching a show recently and in one of the episodes, the final one actually, one of the main characters was dying, so she decided to record a video diary for her daughter to say all the things she would not be around to. Inevitably, she arrived at the subject of God and she told her daughter that she herself didn’t believe in God, but she encouraged her to believe in God, because she had arrived at the conclusion that it didn’t matter whether one believes in God. It was the sentiment of having something to believe in that was the important thing. She said that belief would keep her daughter warm at night. But she was wrong, wrong to believe it doesn’t matter whether one believes in God or not and wrong to believe that the purpose of belief is only to keep one warm.
Though the characters are not real, there are many people in the world today who think like this dying woman, who go through life every day as if God is inconsequential when in fact, He is the most important thing and belief in Him, in His Son, does far more than keep me warm at night, it undergirds me and it quite literally saved me life, preserving me from a fate worse than death.
In high school, I took religion and one day in class, my teacher asked us if we thought Jesus was real – a preposterous question to pose. Nevertheless, there were a myriad of answers. Some said yes, some said no, and then someone said they believed He existed but not as the Bible had written about Him. She said she thought He was a regular guy. But of course, I said yes, not that this was up for debate. In fact, I said, His very life orders time. We mark our time before and after the death of Christ. There was a period of silence after I spoke.
My teacher was asking the wrong question. The world is still asking the wrong questions. The question is not if Christ lived because He still does but rather, do you know Him as Savior? Because that He came, a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:12) to the Virgin Mary and Joseph is not actually in question. Though the world has made this time about everything but Christ, that is what this Advent season is about.
But we take it for granted. Every year, we put up our trees, we go shopping for our loved ones and we put on the ugly Christmas sweaters but the true meaning of Christmas, the impetus for the joy of mankind is cast aside. We even refer to Christmas as Xmas; we have gotten away from why we celebrate, why life is even worth living in the first place and it isn’t because of any worldly possession. It isn’t because of anything under the tree, the kind of house we live in, the money in our bank account. Not only can we not take any of it with us but these are provisions from God. The blessings and gifts from God should never take precedence over God Himself. But we worship the things God gives us until we displace Him completely and inevitably, lose our joy because the things were never meant to supplant God.
This season, preparing for the ultimate gift, has a way of providing perspective, anchoring our priorities back in Christ where we belong, especially now. Our world is progressively getting worse, darker, less hopeful, less interested in the truth than perhaps ever before but that’s the world. We believers have something and know something that it is our duty to impress upon the world. We know there is hope (Jeremiah 29:11), we know there is light because we carry it within, and we know there is an answer to the outcries of the world and we know the truth and it begins with the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes (Luke 2:12). We know the truth of the Gospel of Christ because it set us free (John 8:31-32) when we, like the world, were lost. Christ and His birth offers to us an alternative to the greedy and sinful world we live in:
“He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy;” – Luke 1:51-55
We, through this babe, are quite literally given new life. Like Mary, we get to see a new song because of this birth and we, though in the world, live life abundantly through Christ Our Lord (John 10:10). The wonder and joy of this season is something we have access to every day of our lives so long as we remember and hold in our hearts the promises of God that were fulfilled through Christ. We have an everlasting victory that should fuel us, uplift us and anchor us. Our joy should flow from Christ and permeate every other aspect of our lives, not the other way around.
To return to the original point I began with, yes, I rest easy knowing I am forgiven, I am redeemed and covered in and through the blood of Christ, but my belief does so much more for me than keep me warm. It preserves me, sustains me, enables me, empowers me and gives me the boldness, hope and authority to navigate the world. It gives me the victory, peace and an unspeakable joy that the world cannot give and thus, cannot take away. As we countdown to Christmas, let us remember the presents we open and receive pale in comparison to the ever-available and incomparable gift of salvation through Christ Our Lord who makes life worth living because He lives!
