But I've pondered yesterday's revelation, and I want to challenge the burrowing. This isn't Narnia. It isn't always winter and never Christmas.
It's sometimes winter and always Christmas.
The winter is meant to remind us of ever-present Christmas, to shock us into the wonder of the incarnation every day, in every season. Because the "Christmas spirit," the spirit of giving and hope and the peace and goodwill to all men is not even possible without the One who gave His only Son to be the hope of the nations and the Prince of Peace who would reconcile the world to goodwill with the Father.
So many who celebrate Christmas are living without it, living without Christ. Not even December 25th can really be Christmas for them, and the rest of their winter will be bleak.
But I, we, can celebrate, we can rejoice again and again! We can sing out in truth every day, "Joy to the world! The Lord is come!" God is with us in the God-child whose birth we celebrate this season.
Yes, is, now, present tense. He is with us here. Because, you see, Jesus Christ did not submit to human flesh for His short thirty-three years to fulfill a dangerous mission. He didn't endure the cross, rise in triumph, and ascend in glory to arrive at the Father's right hand and in relief shed His humanity. He didn't claw away the skin of earth with an exhausted, "I made it."
No, He sits there, still clothed, still incarnate, still with us. He can now not be separated. He is forever with us, of us, one of us.
God is forever man.
Every day is Christmas for those who believe that the incarnation thawed the ground, that Christmas ushers in Spring, that winter's days are numbered. Every day is Christmas for those whose reckless faith and undying hope are fanned into new flame with the passing of every December. Every day is Christmas because God is forever man.
Joy to the world! The Lord has come!
Christmas has come!
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