Merry Christmas

“The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertion being that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left.” The Grand Miracle, God in the Dock by C.S. Lewis

I was watching “The Holiday”, which has quickly become one of my favorite seasonal films, along with classics like “Christmas with the Kranks” (N-reeky, anyone?). I love the theme of the wind in The Holiday, which one sees in the background, during the scenes with Iris in LA. It comes in and out of focus. The Santa Ana winds mean anything can happen.

And then, there is the zany Amanda, which I completely identify with. I always cry with her.

It’s a film that reminds us of the beauty of life, the power of human connection, and the beautiful inconvenience of love– how it appears out of nowhere and changes our world. How it gives us that which we did not know we needed.

I was reading the Christmas story from the book of Luke. Luke’s world was so shaken by who Christ is that he felt compelled to research and write a whole book about who Christ was and this experience (Luke 1:3). Not many of us are moved by much of anything to feel so compelled to write an entire book about it and risk our lives while doing it. It takes a specific type of passion and certainty.

The Christmas story is filled with a much more profound illustration of the themes in some of our favorite Christmas films. It’s a story about how truly anything can happen. Miracles shape our lives, every day. It’s a story that reminds us that healing and restoration are here. That love is inconvenient but God picked up the tab. That Love came down, despite the inconvenience, and it rescued us. It gave us everything we didn’t know we needed.

I can’t imagine how shaken Mary and Joseph must have been when this was happening in real time. Or how shocked the shepherds in the fields were when they heard the “good news for all people.” Or how intrigued the wise men of the East were when they saw the star. I can’t imagine how the disciples minds were racing when they heard Jesus declare who He was or their anguish when they later saw Him crucified. Sometimes, we just treat these texts like stories– but they were real. These people were shaken. The world was shaken. And tonight, we remember an incarnation that changed history. It changed our world. And as a Christian, it changes how I see my past, my present and my future. Everything.

I am so grateful for the people who were shaken to their core. I am grateful for a God who isn’t afraid of inconvenience. I am honored to serve a God who loved me enough that He decided to infiltrate my world. There is no greater love than this.

The equivalent to the Santa Ana winds probably blew that night of His birth, as the angels sang to the shepherds in the fields. A promise had been fulfilled. A miracle performed. Anything can happen. It happened then, and it serves as a reminder that miracles happen now.

Merry Christmas.

xx

GY