Christmas Eve. The final 24 hours before Mary’s body was sent into labor to give birth to a startling, reality-confounding truth that would hold from that moment forevermore. Over 2,000 years ago and mankind has still to comprehend that truth, to receive it, to be made new by it. But it was in that moment that, on a spiritual level, there was more than a tectonic plate shift. Up to that moment, the human-Divine gulf was all but inaccessible. Up to that moment, no human being was allowed to see God. Up to that moment, sin removal was through obedience to the strictures of the Law, to be repeated forever. Up to that moment, God’s distance made Him formidable. Up to that moment, hope and peace were things for which to strive.
At that moment ‘the Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.’ John 1:14, MSG. At that moment, the human-Divine gulf was bridged. At that moment, God became an infant as Immanuel, God with us. At that moment, mercy manifested, fulfilling the Law. At that moment, God dwelt imperceptibly among men, inviting a never-before-known intimacy. At that moment, hope, peace, joy, and love became a living human being, lovingly caressed by human beings just like him. At that moment, as Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote, ‘infinity was dwindled to infancy.’ And John says in his Gospel account, and ‘we saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, generous inside and out, true from start to finish.’ John 1:14, MSG.
Since that moment, the air we breathe and the waters we swim in are purer than we, perpetually renewed and refreshed by the presence of the Living Presence. Since that moment, indwelling hope, peace, joy and love characterize every life touched by the Living Presence. Since that moment, every redeemed life has full access to Heaven’s treasures. Since that moment, every drawn-near life basks in the sunlight of forgiveness and the gentle breezes of victory over sin. Since that moment, Jesus is our brother and Heaven is home.
Christmas Eve – quite the moment! Merry Christmas! PD
