REMEMBER THE REAL CHRISTMAS

One of the themes of Advent is waiting.  None of us like to wait.  But we wait for all sorts of things, precious things, frivolous things, interesting things and sometimes we wait for a lifetime.  From the time of Isaiah’s prophecies of a Messiah, it would be 700 years before the coming of the Prince of Peace.  Isaiah, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the heros of the faith, died in faith having only seen the Promise from afar.  The Prince of Peace, came to us as a child.  God, who made all things and is all powerful, became like us, to live like us and to suffer like us so that he might over come our darkness in a way that we can understand.  The coming king would not deliver us from life, but transform life and He would overcome the darkness.

To our astonishment, the one that God promised was a baby in a manger, a child!   We are not comfortable with the real Christmas, so we dress him up.  We paint halos around the child. Mary and Joseph look so kingly and queenly as they gaze upon him.  We deck the halls with holly.  We decorate the tree and we wrap brightly colored gifts.  We sing songs of cheer.  We dress up our yards with snowmen and reindeer and Santa.  If we really want to be true to the event, maybe we ought to put on our worn out clothes and live in abject poverty to remind us how poor we are without Christ. God become poor for us.  It would remind us why our modern Christmas is so empty.  And it would remind us that we are still waiting– waiting for the Second coming of Jesus.