I can't imagine a life without Him in it, without His history or my future with Him, without His voice or His mere comforting presence. I don't want to live in this world without Him, yet that's exactly what she did. I wonder when it hit her that her son was the Messiah. Was it when Gabriel visited her? When the Holy Spirit came upon her? When John leapt in his mother's womb because he could feel the Son of God? Surely her labor was as real as anyone's...without an epidural. Without a breathing coach. Just her. Laboring in pain. Feeling the weight of sin as she birthed that precious human being, that baby who would be King.
I've been considering the majesty of this season, as I do every year when Christmas nears. There is so much weight placed on the "magic" of the holidays and I feel it too...it seems as if everyone is experiencing it- an ephemeral comfort that always leads to the feeling of eternal emptiness. Maybe that's why all the fantastical movies open around the holidays. They provide just enough reprieve from our mundane and very real lives, give us a glimpse of an imaginative world of possibility like in Harry Potter, Twilight, Narnia, The Golden Compass, Lord of the Rings, Avatar etc., then they whisper in our hopeful ear, "Suspend your disbelief..." and promise that for two hours, we will be whisked away on an unforgettable adventure. Even Santa Clause promises something exciting beyond the realm of oxygen...
But what happens to me in the real moments, in the true life moments when the dead-weight of gravity grounds me more than I'd like, is an impossible need for hope for a life that is beyond this one- a life that so far outshines this place that I'll never want to return to this earth. I think about that night in Bethlehem that must have felt so heavy and long and hopeless. Dark and freezing, dirty and disgraceful and as far from "home" as one can feel. And in the midst of a tired era, in the midst of the most impossible situation and against all odds and science and belief, there was a baby born. A baby Whose very Name gives me chills when it is spoken. A baby to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue confess His Lordship. A baby who is named Mighty Counselor, Wonderful, Savior of His people, the Consolation of Israel. And in that moment the angels sang and Christmas was birthed. Behold, here is your King, here is your Love. Here is your Savior. Come and adore Him. Eternity is yours. The impossible is yours. Reconciliation has come. Freedom has come. Christ Jesus the Everlasting, the Messiah, has come. Fall on your knees.
