Draw Nigh, Emmanuel

It seems to happen more quickly every year: the holiday season returns! If we’re going to be picky, however, we cannot actually call it “Christmas” just yet.

We’re already hearing the call to “get into the Christmas spirit.” But calling it “Christmas” is something of a misnomer. The word “Christmas” gets turned into an adjective, used to describe other words or events (i.e., “Christmas cheer”, “Christmas sales event”), instead of being the focus itself. “Christmas” isn’t shopping, present-wrapping or even movie reruns on TV, however deeply woven into the holiday as they may be. They are simply the tokens that surround this particular holiday. It can be all too natural to treat Christmas music on the radio and God’s less-than-glittery entrance onto Planet Earth as if they were equal parts of the greater Christmas puzzle. But I have yet to see mention of tinsel or stockings hanging in the barn (or anywhere in the Gospel account)!

Now don’t get me wrong: I love this season! I love the decorations and seeing the candle-lit windows as I drive down the road. I love the cold weather and the promise of snow on the wind. I love visiting with family and eating savory home cooking. I love the Poinsettias and the Chrismon tree gracing the sanctuary. And believe me, I love the presents! It is not a sin that Christmas is fun!

But we expend shopping bags of energy and fray quite a few nerves on the filler that surrounds Christmas, like negotiating mall traffic or clamoring after the highly sought-after toy. But we give precious little time preparing ourselves for Christmas. We fret over menus and tidying up guestrooms but do not spend the same energy in changing the sheets for the most important Guest of all. The church calls this season “Advent” (from the Latin for “arrival” or “coming”) for a good reason: because the arresting mystery that God would come and be a human with us is worth slowing down to get ready for. The carols, rolling off our lips as fluidly (dare I say, inattentively?) as the Lord’s Prayer, deserve a new hearing:

O Come, O Come Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel

“Captive Israel”: that’s us. How captive we can become to our culture’s picture of the perfect White Christmas, and often we don’t even know it. We get wrapped up in celebration but also distracted from the truest joy: that God is not far-off but Emmanuel: “God-with-us.”

Rejoice! Rejoice!
Emmanuel has come to thee, O Israel!

Rejoice indeed! God is coming! Emmanuel ransoms us from the hostage crisis of sin and a culture that does not know Him. He refuses to abandon us to our own devices or leave us blissfully caged in unawareness. Advent is our season to get ready for Christ is coming!

Is this a guilt-trip against reveling in the holiday? Absolutely not! It is a call back to the source of peace on Earth: the Holy One, the Hero who rescues us from captivity. It is a challenge to not fixate on the things that surround Christmas, but to worship with joy and wonder, the One who is Christmas itself!

Stolen Property

I made off with this powerful quote from a good friend's blog:

"The tragedy of life and of the world is not that men do not know God; the tragedy is that, knowing Him, they still insist on going their own way."

William Barclay (1907-1978)
The Revelation of John [1961] (Vol.II)

Incidentally, you should check it out: rentveil.blogspot.com

Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. ~Ephesians 3:20


God is good at "abundant." It seems whenever our Lord is present in something, abundance follows. The best laid plans of mice and ministers are nothing compared to the increase He so often provides. Granted, God is present whether we sense or experience abundance or not. For certainly there are many who call on God to come near and deal with a situation abundantly (either in mercy or justice). And many-a dark night has left people sensing anything but abundant emptiness. Or an over-abundance of questions.

But that does not diminish the joyful moments where God's gracing is so evident. Just like our wedding reception at home (our wedding was so far away from our church family, we wanted to have an alternative so as to share the celebration close to home). It was wonder-filled to see my brother talking to my friend's step-father, or discovering how church friends of mine were childhood friends with a close friend of hers and the joy of their rediscovery; a joy piled onto the celebration of the occasion. Or our college friends, having driven 4-8 hours, reuniting with other friends for the first time. Or our church family striking up conversations with our biological families. Such a collision of the spheres of our lives sent a pulse of curious wonder, with waves of laughter and friendly conversation lapping against the walls.

In other words, never had I glimpsed heaven so closely as I did that day. Indeed, God provided more than our imaginations could have ever captured.