Today is Christmas Eve. Tomorrow is the grand celebration of Jesus’ birth. O happy day! Here’s what I’ll be sharing with my own congregation this evening at our Christmas Eve service. Blessings to you as you prepare to celebrate with your family and friends. As a housekeeping note, this will be the last post until the new year other than this coming Sunday’s sermon on Monday. See you in a week!

Have you ever been a part of a show? No show happens on the spur of the moment. It takes planning. Lots of planning. Often months of planning. Depending on the size of the show, it may take years. But eventually there comes that moment when all the planning is done. Every line has been learned. All the costumes are set. The make-up is applied. The sets and scenery and props are all in place. The band is rehearsed and warm. It’s time for the show to start. 

The show of our salvation was planned for a long time. 

That’s something we’ve spent the better part of the last month talking about. God started planning way back when the dust of the Fall was still settling. He proclaimed that the seed of the woman—a child—would one day crush the head of the serpent. With echoes of that first proclamation still ringing down through history, God told King Ahaz through the prophet Isaiah that a young woman was going to become pregnant and bear a son. Sound familiar? And this little boy’s name would be Immanuel, which means, “God with us.” He even announced through the prophet Micah where the boy was going to be born—in Bethlehem. 

God had been planning and preparing for centuries. He was waiting until—as we talked about just this past Sunday—the time was right. But at long last, He had moved every piece into place. The people were ready. The stage was set. It was time to put His plan into motion. 

And so, “In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole empire should be registered. This first registration took place while Quirinius was governing Syria. So everyone went to be registered, each to his own town. Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David, to be registered along with Mary, who was engaged to him and was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. Then she gave birth to her firsrtborn Son, and she wrapped him tightly in cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.” 

Friends, this was the curtain rising on the greatest story the world has ever known. Never before or since has there been a story that has so captured the hearts and minds of a watching world. And yet, when the curtain hits its apex, and the action begins, things are not what we would expect them to be. As the song we just sang proclaimed, this was the dawning of the King. He was the theme of heaven’s praises, the light of life, the perfect son of man. We should naturally expect greatness and grandeur. We should expect pomp and circumstance. But when the curtain clears the set, a single spotlight is shining on a humble stable in a forgotten hamlet that has not been the home of anyone significant for more than 1,000 years. 

Then, as the audience of angels wait with baited breath for the action to begin, a poor carpenter and his betrothed enter the frame. He is harried and a bit disheveled. You can see the strain in his eyes. He’s doing his best to take care of his fiancee, but all of the rhythms of his life right now are playing with a syncopation that he just can’t seem to grasp. This was supposed to be God’s Son the woman who he would soon marry was carrying. Surely with her bearing such precious cargo, the child’s heavenly Father with unlimited power and resources would intervene to make their situation a bit more bearable; at least a bit easier. But He hasn’t yet. It has been only one problem after setback after challenge after trouble after another. 

As for the young woman, she bears a somewhat greater confidence that everything is going to turn out okay, but the stress of it all has clearly been weighing on her. And why shouldn’t it? She was swimming in deep waters, and her arms were getting tired. And then there’s the whole part about her being very, very pregnant. Doctors don’t usually advise travel shortly before a delivery, but she and her fiance had just journeyed for three days. On foot. 

As unlikely as this whole scenario seems to be, it echoes with the refrain that God has been singing for a very long time. Every time He has ever stepped into history, it has always come in ways and times that no one would expect. Why should this time be any different? 

For all the human aspects of this scene that should not be missed, let us not overlook the reality of what is before us. The God of the universe, the God who spoke all of creation into existence from out of nothing, the God who is unrivaled in power and might, had just stepped into the pages of human history. The world would never be the same. He stepped into these pages for one reason and one reason only: to be in a relationship with us. His story wound from a manger to a cross, and finally to a tomb whose lone occupant didn’t stay long because He wanted to bring us into a relationship with Himself. He wanted to invite us to take part in the life of His kingdom. He had told us about it for long enough. Now it was time for us to experience it for real. Christmas is when God’s plans for life became real. 

Mary really gave birth that glory-filled night. That little baby King of Kings really did open His mouth which once spoke creation into existence and screamed like the messy newborn baby He really was. The new parents who really were just as overwhelmed and out-of-their-depth as all new parents are really did put Him in a feed trough which was doubling as a crib in that dirty, smelly stable. It was all real. Christmas is when God’s plans for life became real. 

It was real then, and it can be real for you now. Don’t miss this next part. God through Jesus—the baby whose birth we are here celebrating together—wants to invite you into the real life of His kingdom. He wants to invite you into the real life of a relationship with Him. He wants you to come and behold the wondrous mystery, and then stay to receive the life you’ve always wanted. Maybe you have already received this life. If you have, don’t let the wonder of this moment you have been in perhaps many times before be lost on you. Don’t let your familiarity breed contempt. This very evening, I invite you to marvel afresh at what God has done for you. Reflect with a renewed gratitude on the hope and peace and joy and love that are part and parcel with this miraculous season. God came for you. You have life because of His love for you. That really is real. Christmas is when God’s plan for life became real. 

Maybe, though, you haven’t crossed that line yet. What is holding you back? Pride? Fear? A desire to be in control? Those things aren’t real. Oh, they feel it in a moment. But they won’t last. They won’t take you to the places you really want to go. They aren’t part of the life that is truly life. Stop playing at life and embrace the real life God has for you in Christ. Christmas is when God’s plans for life became real. Let them become real in your life this very evening.