The Wonder of It All

When the theme for our Children’s Christmas service this year was chosen several months ago, I appreciated the simple reminder it promised to provide for us as we look ahead to the celebration of the Savior’s birth yet again.  The theme, “The Wonder of It All,” seemed to be very appropriate for Christmas.  Every year, it seems, it becomes more and more of a challenge to keep our eyes transfixed on the manger.  The birth of the Babe in Bethlehem is so dangerously close to being the part of Christmas that is so familiar, so routine, so easily overlooked… that we can completely miss out on the wonder of it all.  Even the “Jesus is the reason for the season” and “Keep Christ in Christmas” car magnets and stickers can become more about outspoken opposition to anti-Christmas sentiments and less about sorely-needed personal reminders.  We can become so busy defending the attacks against Christmas that we fail to deeply ponder the meaning of Christmas.  So I was excited about this theme.

But then, since the tragic events of last week, I can’t help but see the theme from another angle, from the perspective of those who simply have no answers for how or why a young man could thoughtlessly murder innocent children and teachers at an elementary school.  For many, the wonder of it all is who could possibly do this, or why?  For others, perhaps both believers and unbelievers alike, the wonder of it all might be how could a loving God allow this to happen?  The lives of innocent children are over and gone.  But the wonder remains.  Presents had already been purchased by parents, but won’t be opened by the children for whom they were intended.  Our minds are numb and reeling with the kind of wonder that wants answers.

There have been attempts at explaining it, most of which have missed the point.  This tragedy didn’t strike because gun laws aren’t strict enough.  It didn’t happen because God has been taken out of schools.  It happened because the shooter was a sinner.  And what’s even scarier than that?  So are you and I.  Yes, the sin that Satan sequestered in that vile and cowardly killer to serve his wicked purpose is the very sin that God’s law reveals in each of our hearts as well.  Cold-blooded killers we may not be, but heaven’s “no vacancy” sign stays lit for liars, cheats, gossips, haters, pharisees, drunkards, and all other sinners as well.  You and I are destined to be right there with the gunman, standing on the outside of heaven looking in, unable to remove from ourselves the refuse of sin that clings to us and disqualifies us from entrance into heaven.

That would have been our lot, if not for the wonder of it all, the birth of the Son of Mary, the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  The wonder of it all could perhaps be summed up with these words from 1 John 3:8: “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.”  The sinful, shameful acts of last week are not unlike many despicable crimes that have happened in the past.  And sadly, they will happen again… as will the equally shameful sins in our own lives.  But the wonder of it all is that in a helpless, defenseless infant, we see the conquering hero, the Savior God in the flesh, who came to overcome.  He came to destroy and decimate the most wretched and rotten works the devil could ever conceive and carry out.  And because Jesus did just that by virtue of his life and death in our place, he has pronounced us forgiven.  His resurrection guarantees it.  The Babe in Bethlehem was born to become the crucified criminal for us, so that the devil’s work would be undone and we would be welcomed into heaven not as the sinners we are, but as the sons God has made us through Christ Jesus.  Mind-boggling.  Beyond human understanding.  Incomprehensible.  But every bit the reality because of Christmas.  May you marvel at the wonder of it all this Christmas and always.