The Best Christmas Word Ever!

Our times are not the worst of times for Americans.

Indeed there have been more challenging days but for some reason the times in which we now live seem challenging enough for me. I'm looking for some light in the midst of the darkness that I perceive is enveloping our nation and our world. 

Well I do believe I have found some light.

Christmas is just around the corner and you know what? It is just what the doctor ordered for anyone who is swimming in a sea of uncertainty and disappointment. I need a word of hope.

Well Christmas has such a word and it is a powerful word loaded with reasons for hope no matter how bleak our days seem to be. It is a word that offers incredible comfort to those of us who are struggling to make sense of current events, both globally and here at home.

What is that word?

 It is “Incarnation!”

What is “Incarnation” you ask?

In the Gospel of Matthew Joseph had a dream and in this dream an angel of the Lord appeared to him telling him that Mary’s pregnancy was of God and that the baby’s name would be Emmanuel, which means, “God with us.”

“God with us” is a fitting description of the meaning of Incarnation. In other words, God’s presence showed up in the person of Jesus. Jesus becomes the new temple, housing the Divine presence of God the Father.

This is Incarnation and we need this word today more than ever.

Why?

Because we need someone we can trust, someone whose promises will never be broken.

In other words, Jesus embodied the Divine presence including all of God’s promises.

This is Incarnation.

Why is this important?

It is important because Christmas is really about the faithfulness and trustworthiness of God and as you already know we live in a time in which there is a considerable shortage of both in the world today.

Who can we trust? Who really does have our best interests in mind? Who can we rely on to follow through with promises made in order to procure our votes. Who really is telling us the truth? Who can we rely on not to flip flop on promises made? Whose word is most reliable to be true? Who stands on the the rock of truthfulness in today's world? 

These are questions many of us are asking today--I know I am asking such questions.

Yet the central message of Christmas is that God is indeed faithful and trustworthy and whose promises will never fail, never waiver, never disappoint.

God does not flip flop—ever!

I need Christmas for this reason and this reason alone.

Christmas reminds me that God is with us, alongside of us no matter how frightenly unpredictable  our world becomes; no matter how far off the rails it seems to go.

Christmas means God is with us. Christmas images a God who is 100% trustworthy. Jesus revealed God as One who will never fall back on his promises to us; he will never break his word no matter what.

We can trust God even in these challenging and unpredictable times. God has a plan and a purpose for us all that was inaugurated in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. His promise to fulfill that plan and purpose was validated when he showed up in the life of his only son, Jesus.

This is Incarnation!

Christmas is validation of God’s good will and purpose for us all. Christmas means that God can be trusted; that we can depend on him to follow through with every promise he ever made to us.

Perhaps the Apostle Paul captured this truth about God in the following way:

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

Incarnation!

What a word—a Christmas word that embodies an incredible message of joy and hope:

God can be trusted!