Well, the last week of Advent is a short one this year, and so this is my last Advent post for the year. In these final hours leading up to the celebration of Christmas, this is the thought I'd like to leave you with. We're all familiar, more or less, with the traditional story of Christmas, as given to us in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. There's another slightly different version of the birth of Jesus that we hear in the book of Revelation (chapter 12). This one describes His Mother as a woman clothed with the sun and with a crown of 12 stars on her head. It also describes the Devil in the form of a 7-headed dragon, waiting to devour the child about to be born from the Woman. But the child is taken up to God, and the woman flees to the wildness, where a place is prepared for her by God.
This version of the Christmas story is far more war-like and apocalyptic, but it speaks to the reality of what Christmas really is. Christmas in a certain sense is like the fairy tale that really happened. The dragon has taken the people of God captive, and so our King comes in the disguise of a humble baby to save His people from the dragon. Mary, the Woman with a crown of 12 stars, is like the noble princess who opens the gate to let in the King, the King who comes to save His people. As it says in the Christmas carol "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen", "Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day, to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray." This is very much an act of war on God's part, because those are the lengths our King is willing to go to save His people.
As this Christmas is finally almost here, it is my sincere hope that my reflections this Advent have in some way helped you to enter into and prepare better for this Christmas, perhaps in a new way. Now that Christmas is very nearly upon us, it is also my hope that the joy of this Christmas strikes you in a new way. May you see with fresh eyes how great is the love of the King who comes for you this Christmas. And may you see how precious you are in His sight, that He moves heaven and earth, that He declares war on the dragon to save you this Christmas. This is the fairy tale that really happened. This is the love of our King. This is Christmas.
Pax Vobiscum
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