Yesterday, two police men were assassinated in New York due to racial tension, ISIS continued to bleed its violence across Syria, and nearly 21 million people lived trafficked as sex slaves.
Right about now, I need to be reminded that God hasn’t forgotten Revelation 21:4—his promise to remove death and sadness and pain. I need proof that God is on the move, which means that I need Christmas.
Photo courtesy of Chris Vasquez via creationswap.com
About 2,000 years ago, two pregnant women embraced—a virgin teenager named Mary and her post-menopausal relative, Elizabeth. Two miraculous pregnancies. One God in utero.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,” Mary said, “and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (Luke 1:47, 54-55).
Over 2,000 years had passed since Yahweh’s promise to bless all nations through Abraham’s descendants (Gen 12:3). But for centuries, instead of being a world power for good, Israel had been trampled on by Babylon, Persia, and Rome.
Had God had forgotten his promises?
Seven hundred years had passed since Yahweh promised that, one day, deaf people would hear birds chirping, blind people would see their children’s faces, and paraplegics would do jumping jacks (Isaiah 35). But in Mary’s day, women still died in childbirth, blind people had to beg for a living, and the Romans still crucified their enemies.
Had God had forgotten his promises?
With Mary’s pregnancy, God dropped into humanity—a crucial step toward fulfilling his promises.
Two thousand years later, we look back to that pregnancy because it offers evidence, to a hemorrhaging world, that God hasn’t forgotten his promises. He came once to set things in motion and he’s coming back to finish the job. Christmas is proof that God is on the move.
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