On Christmas Day we celebrate that moment in history when God's creative, healing love overcame our natural, space/time incompleteness, and opened us to eternal completeness and wholeness.
The space/time universe, by its very nature, is incomplete. Everything about it has a beginning and an end. Everything and everyone eventually dies. Earth was born 4.5 billion years ago and will die a natural death in 5 billion years. No matter what amazing progress we can make, no matter how much our scientists and philosophers can learn about us and the universe, no matter how much we evolve, no science, no philosophy, no merely human effort can ever overcome our radical space/time incompleteness.
Christmas gives us a deep and wondrous insight into God's creative, loving intentions for us. From all eternity, God intended that we would not be restricted to our natural, space/time incompleteness. What we could never do for ourselves, he would do for us. And he would do it personally, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus. Putting himself directly and explicitly on our terms, God took upon himself our incompleteness and opened the way for us to overcome not only our failings and sins, but death itself. As the Christmas carol says, "Man can live forevermore because of Christmas Day!"
Because we exacerbated our natural incompleteness by committing sins, Jesus had to endure a horrific crucifixion before he rose, in his humanity and ours, to eternal completeness and life. We commemorate his sacrifice at another time of the year. At this time of year we bow in humble gratitude and joy that God has invited us to an "eternal, family Christmas reunion," with him and one another. So we carol our thanks and praise, embrace one another with the special affection and love that God has shown us, and wish one another a Merry and Blessed Christmas!
The space/time universe, by its very nature, is incomplete. Everything about it has a beginning and an end. Everything and everyone eventually dies. Earth was born 4.5 billion years ago and will die a natural death in 5 billion years. No matter what amazing progress we can make, no matter how much our scientists and philosophers can learn about us and the universe, no matter how much we evolve, no science, no philosophy, no merely human effort can ever overcome our radical space/time incompleteness.
Christmas gives us a deep and wondrous insight into God's creative, loving intentions for us. From all eternity, God intended that we would not be restricted to our natural, space/time incompleteness. What we could never do for ourselves, he would do for us. And he would do it personally, in the flesh, in the person of Jesus. Putting himself directly and explicitly on our terms, God took upon himself our incompleteness and opened the way for us to overcome not only our failings and sins, but death itself. As the Christmas carol says, "Man can live forevermore because of Christmas Day!"
Because we exacerbated our natural incompleteness by committing sins, Jesus had to endure a horrific crucifixion before he rose, in his humanity and ours, to eternal completeness and life. We commemorate his sacrifice at another time of the year. At this time of year we bow in humble gratitude and joy that God has invited us to an "eternal, family Christmas reunion," with him and one another. So we carol our thanks and praise, embrace one another with the special affection and love that God has shown us, and wish one another a Merry and Blessed Christmas!
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