Blue Print for Christmas

When I previously wrote about "The Blue Print for Easter", it never occurred to me that the birth of Christ is as much an act of divine design as His death on the cross. In fact, Christ's birth and death is one single blue print of God's inexplicable and immeasurable love for me and you, played out over 33 earth years 2000 years ago, but conceived and born in Eternity.

That an almighty and awesome God volitionally traded the glory and majesty of Heaven for a life of incomprehensible humility, suffering, and eventual death on the rough-hewn trunks of a tree is beyond all human understanding. That's why Jesus, God among us, Emmanuel, is mystical and divine.

The human story (history) of our Lord reminds me so much of Mark Twain's classic, The Prince and The Pauper. In his desire to experience what life would like outside the cocooned luxury of the palace, Prince Edward traded places with a beggar boy, Tom Canty, who bore a remarkable resemblance to himself. Thus began the prince's adventure and misadventure in a cold hard world (which was his father's kingdom) where common folks lived. In the end, the prince was restored to his regal state. Trading places is where the similarities end.

God knew how depraved His created world had become. But, the prince never in a million years knew what poverty, injustices, depravity, and selfishness looked like. He traded his throne for the life of a beggar. Whereas, God knowingly humbled Himself to become the least of us by choosing to be born lowly, lived simply, taught passionately, fought hypocrisy and injustices fiercely, and died on a criminal's cross shamefully.

Why did God do that? He did that just for me. God did that because He loves me so much that He could not, and cannot, see me spend eternity without Him. He is the Good Shepherd who loves every single sheep! He would roam around the countryside looking for the lost sheep. When the enemy demands a pound of flesh from me as a result of my debt of sins, Christ offers up His life to pay my unpayable debt. Debt paid and debt-free, I am ransomed by my faithful and loving God.

Being conceived in the womb of a mere mortal and born a baby are the beginning steps of redeeming my debts by trading places with me. That's what Christmas is all about! It's God's thirty-three-year-and-nine-month journey on this earth to redeem my unpayable debts.

On the cross, God says,"It's paid in full! It's done!" God defeated the enemy, his evil intent, and death itself as He rose from the dead in the same mystical and miraculous way when He was born a baby in a manger in Bethlehem.

The cuddly gurgling baby in Mary's arms is the same beaten and deformed sin-carrier on the Roman cross. Most amazingly of all, He is the same Good Shepherd, the same Creator, Redeemer, King, and loving God who loves me by offering His "pound of flesh" for me so that I may be free from the yoke and bondage of my enemy.

The blue print of Christmas and that of Easter are, indeed, a single divine design, conceived in love and eternity, for the salvation of all.

"Oh Happy Day when Christ was born!"

No wonder the choir of angels still sings!