A Christmas Thought

A few years ago, as I planned a Christmas Eve message, it struck me how we tend to want to leave Jesus, as a baby, in the manger at Christmas, and then jump forward to Easter and fix him as a thirty-something man to the cross, while forgetting about the life he lived in between these two, important, events.

Even when we describe the gospel we tend to still focus on the nativity and the crucifixion. So often I hear the gospel described in too-simple terms as the Father sending the Son to die for us. Of course, this is true, but it is not the whole truth.

Jesus did enter time and space as a baby. But he didn't stay that way. He grew into an adult and he lived a life that serves as an example to those who claim to follow him, today.

In this light then, Christmas is not so much about the "Christchild" as it is about the incarnation. About a life that was lived among humans as an example for humans of the way God intends us to live.

Instead of thinking and talking about a baby in a manger this Christmas, I am going to be concentrating on celebrating the life that was lived (the gospel in its fullness) between the manger and the cross.