The Holy Miracle Series

Christmas eve is my favorite day of the year. Some of you may find that odd especially if you know that I love everything about Christmas. And, I do love everything about Christmas. I love the lights, the decorations, the eggnog, the cookies, and my grandma’s homemade banana pudding that my mom makes for me every year. I even love the electricity that seems to be in the air. People tend to be friendlier, at least when they are not shopping. Christmastime is my favorite part of the year, but Christmas day often disappoints me. Even though tomorrow is the fist day of the 12-day season of Christmas for the church, it always feels like its over. The presents are exchanged, the boxes and wrapping paper that looked so pretty under the tree are now in the garbage, and I have usually gained 5 pounds just from the banana pudding. When I was a kid, I loved Christmas eve, because we always went to my aunt’s house. Yes, I did get presents, but my favorite part of the night was the ride home when I got a whole half an hour to look at the sky to see if I could spot Santa and his Reindeer. I have to be honest, I have a nearly three-hour drive to my mom’s after this service, and I will probably sneak a few peaks at the sky to see if I might just see the big man and his sleigh. There is just something magical about Christmas Eve. As an adult, Christmas eve has never lost its specialness only I now describe it as holy rather than magical. It is the night or the day that the church gets together to remember that silent holy night on which the Christ child was born. The Christ child was given the name Jesus, and He is our Immanuel which means God with us.

The truth is there is nothing disappointing about Christmas day. Christmas day is one of the holiest days of the year because is the day we celebrate the moment that the one true God of the universe chose to become a baby to set in motion His perfect plan to reconcile all of humanity to himself by dying on a cross as a ransom for all of humanity’s collective sin. Could there be any grater gift than salvation from our sins? I would say no, but there is more to the story. After Jesus died on a cross as a ransom for our sins, he rose to life three days later in defeat of death in order to grant all who claim him as their Lord and Savior not only salvation, but also eternal life. Can’t possibly get better right? Oh, but it does. We don’t have to spend eternity in this sin filled world with bodies that are, well let’s just say far from perfect. No, we get to spend eternity in a new Earth and New heaven with new perfected bodies. That means no more pain, no more tears, no more cancer, no more disabilities, no more sickness, no more sin. We will spend eternity in a place that is perfect, and we will spend eternity in the presence of our creator. That is the message of Christmas. God chose an ordinary girl named Mary to be the mother of his One and only son, in order to reconcile himself with all of humanity. God created humans to live in harmony with him, but humans decided to sin against God. And, the moment sin entered the world the harmony between God and humanity ended. In fact, there was a separation between God and humanity, a chasm that no matter what humans did could not be crossed. The entire Old Testament is the story of God chasing after humanity through the nation of Israel, but no matter what God did humans choose their sinful ways over God’s ways. After a hundreds if not thousands of years God could have just wiped out humanity and started over, but after the flood God promised to never do that again, and God is a promise keeper. He could us at the very least just turned his back on humanity, and said I’m done you are on your own. But, praise be to God that we have a compassionate God who loved us too much to turn His back on us. So, what did God do? God sent his son to once and for all bridge the chasm that was between us and God, so that we could be reconciled to God. That is the story of Christmas. Christmas is about the moment a divine miracle happened, and God became flesh and dwelt among us because He loves us too much to turn his back on us. That is why we are gathered in this beautiful country church this afternoon. We are here to remember the divine miracle when Jesus was born in a manger. It was a holy moment in time, and we are here to pause and reflect on what that holy moment means for us.