Merry Christmas from All Things New!

Have you ever noticed how there is still a sense of awe and wonder around Christmas? When you read about the birth of Jesus in the Gospels, there are all of these different events that come together that, if you really ponder them, they are hard to believe. Here are just a few of them:

• The events surrounding John the Baptist’s birth.
• A virgin being told by an angel that she would have a baby.
• Her soon to be husband being told, by an angel, to stay with her even though she would soon conceive.
• Mary having Jesus.
• GOD entering the world as a man.
• Shepherds being visited by a “Heavenly Host” and being told to go and worship this baby.
• Magi coming from far away and being led by a star to a specific home where Jesus was.
• Herod ordering the death of male children under the age of 2.
• Joseph being warned again and fleeing.

These are not normal things. We have heard about them, sung about them, and almost memorialized them to the point where they no longer seem real. They have become the thing of folk legend and lore for a lot of people, but they are the absolute truth of GOD! These incredible events all came together around the birth of Jesus. It was like something so big was happening that the whole earth had to react to it.

The truth is, how could it not? What do we expect with the Savior of the world, GOD in the flesh being born. It was not going to be quiet and uneventful. It is kind of like a hole in time and space is ripped open in this one event. Where the infinite enters the finite, the perfect enters imperfection, the all-powerful secedes His power, the GOD of the Universe becomes a man. 

That awe and wonder that occurred back then have found their way into our wold today as well. They have definitely been twisted and have taken the form of commercialism and gift giving, but it does not change the fact that the awe and wonder surrounding Christmas is definitely there. It is in the atmosphere, the parties, the family gatherings, the worship services, and even the gift giving. 

I have noticed that in our family we have tried our hardest to keep the discussion and the focus about Jesus. We do not go overboard on gifts, we build in traditions that focus on Jesus, and we try  our hardest to talk to our kids about Jesus. Still, Santa Clause and gifts are very exciting and it would be really easy to allow the whole day and the whole season to be about that. There is definitely an excitement and awe that is built around those things.

I guess my point is that 2000 years ago something so powerful, so miraculous, and so incredibly good happened that there have been 2000 years of shockwaves emanating from that event. How on earth have we managed to corrupt even that? While Jesus’ death and resurrection is the pinnacle of our Christian faith, His birth is the most miraculous thing I can imagine.

If we consider a miracle something that cannot be explained by scientific or natural laws, then the birth of an infinite GOD has to be right up there. And then the way we tend to celebrate this event is by buying as many gifts as we possibly can to the point that we get so stressed, so broke, and so consumed with trying to find the perfect present that we forget about the reason we should be in awe. In fact, we become so in awe of the materialistic nature of what Christmas has become that we forget to be in awe of one of the most incredible miracles ever recorded.

So I plead with myself and with everyone reading this…Do Not Misplace Your Awe and do not Misplace Your Wonder!  We get to celebrate something so incredible that it completely changed the world.  Something so awe-inspiring that it has brought people to their knees for over 2,000 years in worship, in reverence, and in awe. Let’s make sure that we celebrate the GOD who has always and will always be there instead of the gifts that will last for a couple of weeks. 

Merry Christmas from All Things New!

Thank you for everything you did to help us in 2019, and we are excited to see where GOD leads us in 2020.