Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Love's Fanfare

Ahh, Christmas Eve. That wonderful day of the year when TBS starts it's 24-hour straight running of 'A Christmas Story' (now in High-Def), when you can find 'A Christmas Carol' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' on at least 37 different channels and when the local fire department is on high alert as they try to keep churches from burning down due to open flames at the candle-light services. I love this day. It's usually a haze of food coma, pine scent and wrapping paper. Here at the beach, we often get some surf as well. It's wintertime, so you have a pretty good chance of scoring some waves if you can brave the freezing rain and gale force winds. Today was more freezing rain and less good waves...but hey, it's Christmas Eve! Nothing instills optimism more than good ole' Christmas Spirit!

So when my friends Curt and Hailey called and said that it didn't look great, but we HAD to surf on Christmas Eve, I pulled on my wetsuit, jumped in my car and headed to the beach. They were right...it didn't look good! Camille has to work tonight (bummer), but she probably wouldn't have wanted to paddle out in freezing rain anyway. Curt and Hailey were the only ones in the water when I pulled up to the beach, and since I was already in my wetsuit I decided that I couldn't let them suffer alone on Christmas Eve. I don't know if it was the Spirit of Christmas just giving me a good attitude or if it really was better than it looked, but I actually had a good session. I caught a bunch of waves and got home in time to cuddle with my beautiful wife on the couch for a bit before she had to go to work. Like I said, I love this day.

Tonight, I went to Christmas Eve service with Camille's family. You know - the one where they try to burn the church down by giving open flames and hot, liquid wax to five-year-olds. Fortunately, the services of the fire department were never needed. I'm pretty sure that Jesus appreciated the unusually loud, off-key, mis-timed caroles being sung by the nice gentleman behind me more than I did, but like I said, it's Christmas Eve and he was in the spirit so it's all good.

Part of the service included a very nice two person tag-team reading of the Christmas story out of Matthew, Luke and John. I'm not being facetious here, it really was cool. And they did a nice job. The problem with me is that my overactive, somewhat twisted and bizarre brain never stops. As they were reading about the shepherds out in the field being serenaded by angels telling of Christ's birth, I got this mental image of these poor dudes just minding their own business and trying to keep warm suddenly having the living crap scared out of them by some glowing aliens with bullhorns and trumpets. Sometimes I wonder if they really ran into town to find Jesus in the manger, or if they were just trying to escape a Bible version of War of the Worlds. Seriously, what would you do if you were driving along on a dark night and an angel suddenly hovered over your car, all glowing and stuff, and started talking to you in a booming voice? Like my dad says, first you'd say it, then you'd do it! You'd probably also drive right off the side of the road!

OK, before you brand me a heretic, let me remind you how hard it is to turn down the 'dork' setting in my brain. The Christmas story is my second favorite story of all time, and while I could probably do an entire 'Saturday Night Live' version of it, I truly am moved to reverent worship each time I read or hear it. (In case you are wondering, my favorite story is the one where the baby in that Christmas manger is all grown-up and willingly allows himself to be brutalized and hung on a Roman cross to die for my sins. Thank you so much, Jesus...my words will never be enough...)

After I forced myself to quit visualizing screaming shepherds running in a frenzy toward town while shooting rocks into the air behind them with their slings, a thought struck me. Angels...from the presence of God Himself...appeared 'en masse' on our little planet to announce the arrival of His Son. The Bible calls them 'Heavenly Hosts'. We're talking about beings of unimaginable power who probably have the entire Universe as their stomping grounds. That awesome night, the laws of physics as we know them were stretched to the breaking point as the armies of Heaven poured into our dimension to pay homage to their great General. Terrifying? Yes. But their purpose was not to scare some lonely shepherds.

You see, they knew that their Lord was about to strike the final blow in a battle with the enemy that had raged from time immemorial. That helpless baby lying in an animal feed trough because there wasn't enough room for his pregnant mother in any of the motels in town was the Creator of the Universe. He was their Captain. And He was here to take back His Creation from the clutches of His enemy. The 'Heavenly Host' was fired up! They were announcing the commencement of the battle that would defeat sin and bring about the end of Death once and for all.

I'm sure that God had His reasons for allowing those shepherds to witness the frightening power of His army. But I kinda think that the host of angels would have appeared in force even if no one was around to see. Their enemy saw it. And you can bet that he was shaking in his boots. The great Army of Heaven was now in his territory, but even worse for him - so was their Lord. This isn't science-fiction, people. The Bible talks a lot about warfare in the spiritual realm, and you can bet that this night kicked-off a battle that would shake the foundations of time and space. I envy those shepherds for catching just a glimpse of that epic display of God's power.

The incredible thing about the battle that ensued is this...God simply used love to accomplish what no amount of force or power could have.

John 3:16 - "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life."

Jesus lived a life of humility, self-sacrifice, kindness and love. Love drove His compassion for others. Love is what compelled Him to heal the sick and mend broken hearts even when He was tired or not feeling too well. Love is what drove Him to the Cross. Love brought Him here, and ultimately love killed Him. Medical experts say that the Biblical description of Jesus' death proves that He died not of the many wounds He suffered, but that He died of a broken heart. He literally loved us to death. Yeah. Stop and think about that for a second. He was so in love with you that His heart broke for you and He died.

The greatest part of it all is that love didn't leave him dead. He had to die so that he could meet death face-to-face and defeat it. But his Father loved Him too much to allow death to keep Him. The Bible says that God raised Him up from the dead and that He sits today on the right hand of the Father, having triumphed over death. Through Love, He defeated death and paid the penalty for your sin and mine. Because of His great love, we now have free access to God. With love, He won the ultimate battle - the battle for our hearts, our souls...our Eternity.

It all started on a quiet night in the Israeli countryside two thousand years ago. Love invaded our planet and the armies of the Almighty God threw down a challenge to the enemy of our souls. Love was announced with fanfare that night, but its true power was shown in the humble life of a Jewish carpenter. He loved you to death and paid your entry fee into Eternity with His Father. Surely this Christmas we can all find a small way to love Him back.

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