I Wonder: A Reflection for Christmas

Last night at church we read the account of the infancy narrative of Christ's incarnation from Luke chapter 2.  For anyone unfamiliar with this particular passage, this account includes the multitude of angels in the sky appearing to shepherds as they were watching their sheep that particular night.  Often this passage has brought about much scrutiny over the actual feast day of the nativity being December 25th, but that matter is so trivial that it doesn't merit any mention here.  If you really want to know how December 25th came to be Christmas, read this book.  But to think like an historian for a moment, put yourselves in the place of these First Century shepherds and wonder.

If everything in the written record of that night is literally true, these men had experienced something that would change them forever.  More than likely these men were Jews, and as Jewish males, they would have been expected to be educated in the Law even if they were never taught to read or write.  In fact, most folks could not read or write back then which made this society a society of stories and the spoken word (what we would call the oral tradition).  So imagine that as you grew up, each time you went to temple you would hear these stories about Yahweh, the patriarchs, the prophets, and the promise of Messiah.  Every Sabbath you would be told the same stories again and again, seemingly without any physical conformation that these stories are true.  There had been no prophet in Israel for about 400 years at that point.  Perhaps these stories melded more into legend than history for one of these shepherds.  You have grown up in poverty and by adulthood there you remain.  You take a job as a shepherd just to stay alive.  You are forced to follow a flock of some of the dumbest creatures in existence, to maintain your own existence.  Your people and your culture are oppressed by a foreign power.  Where is this Yahweh that my forebears always talked about.  Obviously He has either forsaken us, or was never real to begin with.

Years pass.

And then one night, something miraculous happens.  Half-asleep you stir because you hear the sheep bleating.  You turn over and see a bright light in the sky.  As you rub the sleep from your eyes you squint and see a figure.  A bright, glorious figure.  "Perhaps I am dreaming?" you think to yourself, but then your coworkers wake up and stare at the same figure in the sky.  And then it speaks to you!  "Do not be afraid," the figure says.  Words loud and clear as a bell.  "I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

You stare at the figure for a moment, taking in every word that you have just heard.  Your heart and mind race in tandem.  All of those stories that you heard as a child.  The history that mixed with myth in your imagination.  All of this begins to melt away into a cold reality that what you are seeing is more real than every moment of your entire past.  And then to obliterate any final shreds of doubt, the sky opens up, and the solitary figure is joined by a multitude, and a choir of thousands of these figures begins to sing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased."

"Yahweh." you whisper.  "The stories were true!  The Messiah is here in this time, and in this town."  You and your friends run with full abandon to the place where the angel proclaimed they would find the Messiah.  You race through the Podunk town of Bethlehem scouring every stable around until you come across a couple and their newborn son.  The smell of the stable floods your nostrils.  The sounds of the animals, the baby cooing, the mother breathing, your own heartbeat are recording in the database of your mind.  And then you walk up to the manger and see exactly what you were told what you would see.  The Messiah.  The mother tells you his name is Jesus, "God is Salvation."  You fall to your knees before the infant and weep.  All of the doubts, the hurt, the abuse, the self-deprecation, the lies and the abandonment have died.  In a flurry of emotion you touch the infants hand and kiss it.  You look to the mother and hug her.  You utter a prayer of thanksgiving to Yahweh.  Your friends do likewise.  For in this very moment, the myth has become true.  The stories that gave you hope as a child have been verified.  You have seen, smelt, heard and touched the Savior of the World.  And you will never be the same.  It's no wonder that the writer of this account closes this scene with, "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them."  Would you not do the same?

We take for granted in our current century the luxuries of writing, video, archives, and photography when it comes to history, and often this clouds our minds and shapes our judgments when dealing with the past.  But human beings are human beings and will continue to be human beings.  We all have the same physical and emotional needs.  We all struggle with the rigors of eking out an existence in this cold, cruel world.  We all desire to be fully known and fully loved, and unconditionally.  Just like those shepherds of old, perhaps you've heard this story time and time again, but as the years have gone by you have let them mix with myth and legend.  You haven't witnessed God prove His existence, and the very question of His existence is no longer worth trifling with.  But if we are to consider for a moment that this story is true and happened in space-time history, if we are to open our minds and wonder what the ramifications of this event mean for us today, perhaps those same doubts, hurt, abuse, self-deprecation, lies, and abandonment that those shepherds may have felt begin to melt away in your own mind, and you begin to reassess those old stories and wonder...

"There's only one reason to believe in Christianity: because it is true."  - Francis Schaeffer