A Holy Merry Christmas

A Holy and Merry Christmas to Everyone:

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"The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples ... (Genesis 49:10)"

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"I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near; a star shall come forth from Jacob, a scepter shall rise from Israel ... (Numbers 24:17a)"

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"The people who walk in darkness will see a great light; those who live in a dark land, the light will shine on them. ...

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For a child will be born to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. (Isaiah 9:2, 6-7)"

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"Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, in order to register along with Mary , who was engaged to him, and was with child. While they were there, the days were completed for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son; and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn.

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In the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over the flock by night. An an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened. But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:4-11)"

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C. S. Lewis wrote a wonderful fantasy trilogy. The first one is titled Out of the Silent Planet. In that book the man Ransom is kidnapped by two evil men of earth and taken to another world, a world that is not fallen like ours. Lewis portrays him escaping and wandering the planet. He meets with a great angel called Oyarsa who speaks of Maleldil (God). The Oyarsa is anxious to learn about Thulcandra (earth) from Ransom. The Oyarsa speaks:

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"'Thulcandra is the world we do not know. It alone is outside the heaven, and no messages comes from it.'

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Ransom was silent, but Oyarsa answered his unspoken questions.

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'It was not always so. Once we knew the Oyarsa of your world--he was brighter and greater than I--and then we did not call it Thulcandra. It is the longest of all stories and the bitterest. He became bent. That was before any life came on your world. Those were the Bent Years of which we still speak in the heavens, when he was not yet bound to thulcandra but free like us. It was in his mind to spoil other worlds besides his own. He smote your moon with his left hand and with his right he brought the cold death on my own harandra before its time ... We did not leave him so at large for long. There was great war, and we drove him back out of the heavens and bound him in the air of his own world as Maleldil taught us. There doubtless he lies to this hour, and we know no more of that planet: it is silent. We think that Maleldil would not give it up utterly to the Bent One, and there are stories among us that He has taken strange counsel and dared terrible things, wrestling with the Bent One in Thulcandra. But of this we know less than you; it is a thing we desire to look into'"

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Of course, only the truest and most beautiful story, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in the midst of a fallen, bent world, could be retold by an author using such poetic, metaphoric language. The Oyarsa is of course speaking scripture when he says, "But of this we know less than you; it is a thing we desire to look into."

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Peter, in his letter, puts it this way, "As to this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven--things into which angels long to look. (1 Peter 1:10-12)"