Man took the one thing that wasn’t offered as a gift. The Giver of all gifts responded with yet another gift. And so looking back from this side of the Incarnation we can now see the Fall for what it truly was, a precondition for the greatest event in human history. God doesn’t treat the rebellion as something remote and unimportant. Instead, He selects Abraham and sets him apart as the father, not so much the father of a race but rather the father of a faith. “One people picked out of the whole earth; that people purged and proved again and again. Some are lost in the desert before they reach Palestine; some stay in Babylon; some becoming indifferent. The whole thing narrows and narrows, until at last it comes down to a point, small as the point of a spear – a Jewish girl at her prayers.”1C.S. Lewis, ‘The Grand Miracle’, God in the Dock From here Mighty God launches His “daring raid into the universe’s seat of evil”2Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew entering into the struggling mess of humanity to set things right.3Romans 8:3 The Author of Life puts on humanity and enters into the Story. And He takes the role not of a king, but of the suffering servant. Here we find the perfect blend of ordinariness and blessedness as the Almighty stoops to save. The Word, or Logos, becomes Flesh in order to set things right. The God who fiendishly allows suffering and death suffers to put an end to suffering and dies to destroy death. In a nutshell, ‘God saves.’ It’s the name of Jesus. It’s the story of God’s loving pursuit of rebels like me. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”4Luke 2:14
—Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night
Photo Credit: “Christmas Lights” by timo_w2s is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0