Unwrapping Christmas - Viewing the Nativity Through Luke's EyesSample

Day 1

Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word delivered them to us.  Luke 1:1-2

There is a beginning to the Christmas narrative, and then there is another beginning. A Beginning that has no starting point or finish line to cross. God eternal; God unlimited: the uncaused Cause. 

Jesus’ story doesn’t start with His conception or His birth. His story doesn’t even launch from the creation of the world as we know it. The Great I AM – coexistent, coeternal, coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit – has always been. Our oh-so-limited minds can’t begin to comprehend this truth! 

Jesus, the Word of God – God Himself – became flesh and dwelt among us. Almighty God, leaving heaven’s splendor, took on the form of our dust to save us from our separation from the Father and the ravages of sin and enslavement to our enemy. A babe in a manger: God with us.

And what about those eyewitnesses who walked the dusty paths of Israel with Him – those who laughed, cried, beheld, and held the Miraculous? They desire for us to encounter the miraculous as well.

There has never been a more lavish romance in all of the measured time than the love story of God for humanity. Because that’s what Christmas is, the real-life story of the King who became a pauper, who so loved His wayward children that He came for their rescue. He came so they could find overwhelming satisfaction and fulfillment by being hidden in His heart and empowered by His Holy Spirit. He came so that they may reign in life instead of being devastated by it.

Such is the power of the Christmas story. A story that never stops giving.