Have you ever noticed that we live in a world that everything is dying to get out of? Think about it:
- How many house plants have you seen die in your place?
- How many gold fish did your kids win at the carnival that you had to flush down the toilet two days later?
- How many trees in your yard could not weather the storm?
- How many dogs or cats have come and gone?
- How many funerals have you attended in your life?
We live in a world where everyone and everything is dying. This is one of the impacts of living in a fallen world, and it causes much sorrow on its inhabitants.
Additionally, we live in a broken world:
- What is the life span of the last computer you purchased? 4 or 5 years?
- How often do you have to replace light bulbs at your house?
- How many of you have had to replace your roof from weather related casualties this year?
Things once shiny and new are breaking all the time. Lights that once shown brightly are extinguished with alarming frequency.
But . . . at Christmas time, we celebrate life and death. At Christmas time, we celebrate light and not darkness. Why? Because of Jesus.
Listen to what John 1:4-5 says:
In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
This verse tells us that Jesus came as a giver of life, not a dispenser of death. In a sense, Jesus was the anti-Grim Reaper. In a world of death, Jesus brings eternal life. The Bible tells us that one day Jesus will return to the earth again and set up a kingdom that will never end, filled with people who are eternally alive, and inhabiting a world that is protected from decay. Why? Because “In Him was life.”
Additionally, Jesus was a light in this dark world that would never be “overcome.” That means He would never break or be extinguished. The world has a living and bright future because Jesus will sustain it.
So to all of us who are living in a dying and broken world, there is good news of great joy this (and every) Christmas season. Jesus birth brought Life and Light into the world, giving us something different than the rest of this world can offer. Faith in Christ is more than a decision to follow a new religion. . . it is a step out of your dying and broken destiny into an eternally living and luminous future. That is why we celebrate His coming at Christmas.