By Joy Bongiorno
It’s Christmas time again! I have celebrated many Christmases now and I have been in various places, in different circumstances, and it has ranged from the time I had to make a Christmas tree out of wrapping paper to today, when I have more decorations than I can use all at one time. But always it has been a time of joy and excitement. This year is no different. I love this season!
The other day I was trying to bring to mind my earliest memories of Christmas. I must have been five years old. At that time, my parents owned what was known as a Christian guest house, in England. It was a large, stone, 8-bedroom place just a block from the beach. Of course, that beach is on the Irish Sea so not your balmy, sunny kind of vacation spot. However, it is a popular place and in the summertime our guest house was filled with visitors. In those months, my brother and I were relegated to a bedroom in the lower regions of the house. But during the winters, it was just our family in the house so we got to use the best bedrooms. We didn’t always sleep in the same room, but I was always happy when I was put in the front bedroom on the second floor. It has a lovely bay window overlooking the street, with the sea and mountains beyond. On Christmas Eve I was very excited to be there because I thought it was the best spot from which to watch for the arrival of Father Christmas (as he is known in England).
Those are happy memories. I grew up in a home filled with love and the joy of the Lord, and our Christmases were good times of celebrating with family, friends, and our church.
I still love Christmas. I enjoy the music, the parties, the concerts, the decorations, being with family and friends. I love it all! But I think my favorite event of the season is the Christmas Eve service. After all the activity and bustle that leads up to Christmas Day, it is wonderful to be able to sit quietly and contemplate the birth of our Savior. We sing carols together, maybe watch a touching video. We listen to scriptures read which tell us what happened on the night Jesus was born. It all draws us in to the amazing retelling of the moment that God became a human being. Now there is a mind-boggling statement!
God became flesh - flesh and blood. We use that term to describe the family relationship. The people closest to us are our flesh and blood. And sometimes, when we know someone only through photographs and then meet them in person, we comment on how satisfying it is to finally see them “in the flesh.” That is what people experienced when Jesus was born. God became flesh. One of the scripture readings you may hear at this time of year is found at the very beginning of the book of Hebrews. It says, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.”
This glorious being, the King of heaven, came to earth as a human baby - flesh and blood. That is what we celebrate and remember at Christmas, but sometimes it becomes such a familiar story that I lose sight of the magnitude of it. That’s when I read again these verses in the first chapter of Hebrews and am reminded that this was an earth-shaking, precedence-shattering event. Nothing like it had ever taken place before.
The beautiful little baby born of Mary that night so long ago in Bethlehem was probably not the only child born in Israel that night, but Jesus was different - unique, in fact. The life Jesus lived and the death He died changed our world. It was the turning point of history.
At the time of Jesus’s birth, only four people knew who He really was: Mary, Joseph, Zachariah, and Elizabeth. Zachariah and Elizabeth were the parents of John the Baptist, and relatives of Mary. She had stayed with them for a few months at the beginning of her pregnancy, and God had revealed to them that this child was the Messiah. But when He was born, the news went out in a big announcement from Heaven. Scores of angels filled the sky above Bethlehem and the word went out - “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord.” Only a handful of people have seen masses of angels like that. I have tried to imagine it but really I have no grasp of what it must have been like. A display of light and glory that must have been thrilling and terrifying to see. And the news of the birth of the Messiah would have been a huge jolt of excitement for the humans who received it. However, this announcement was not made in the city center or the synagogue - it was given on a hillside to a small group of shepherds. Shepherds??!! That definitely does not sound like a savvy marketing plan. But those shepherds hurried off to find this divine Baby and when they did, they worshipped Him. Then, of course, they spread the news, telling everyone they met what had happened that night. From that small beginning, that wonderful news has spread through the whole world, until, in these days of practically limitless digital media, this Gospel can be heard in almost every country. People in the largest of the world’s cities and in the remotest places on the planet can learn about Jesus, who came to save us.
This little Baby was not born only to bring joy to His parents, an extra pair of hands to Joseph’s carpentry shop, or even to give healing to the sick and disabled. Sure, He did many amazing things during His life - miraculously providing food for enormous crowds of hungry people, turning water into wine, calming a life-threatening storm at sea, raising people from the dead, and much more. No, that was not the sole purpose for His coming, or even the main reason. Continuing our reading in the first chapter of Hebrews we see this: “After he - that’s Jesus - had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” What’s that all about? How did He provide purification for our sins? Well, that’s where the flesh and blood come in. We read in the Bible that without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness of sin. So to save us, God had to become flesh and blood. And that blood was shed for the forgiveness of our sins on the cross of Calvary. When he was 33 years old, Jesus was arrested, tried, and wrongfully condemned to death. He was killed - crucified on a cross - not because He was powerless to stop His execution, but because He loved us so much that He was willing to die for us. Then Jesus proved that He has the power and authority to forgive sins and give us eternal life by coming back to life and leaving His tomb empty. Today, as Hebrews says, He is seated in Heaven, and He is still saving people and filling our lives with His joy and love and peace.
That is what makes Christmas so amazing. It’s not just the miracle of Jesus’s birth, but the knowledge of why He became flesh and blood. John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.” There's a Christmas song that asks, “Why would God come to earth / Why would He choose a manger birth?” and the chorus gives the answer “…because of love.“ God loves each one of us, and He died to save us. What a Christmas gift! We are immeasurably blessed if we receive this gift with open hearts. Colossians 1:13 says, “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”
That’s a lot to celebrate, isn’t it? Let’s just thank God for His wonderful gift.
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