The very first Christmas our world experienced was one of dichotomy. Angels appearing before shepherds, a virgin delivering a baby, the savior of the world born not to royalty but to a humble couple, the power and ageless wisdom of God encapsulated within the frail flesh of a human being.
How serene, how gentle, how beautiful must that very first Christmas night have been. How awe-inspiring, how precious, how humbling must that event have been for all who were aware of its incredible significance!
In contrast, today Christmas is celebrated quite fragrantly. Music of happy themes and melodies, buildings and homes glittering with lights, shops and malls offering shopping deals, Santa Claus and Rudolf, and everywhere one looks the message of "peace and goodwill" is trumpeted in our faces.
All of it is gaudy dichotomy.
How can there be peace and goodwill when people purchase more than they can afford, or when they drive in a harried frenzy, or when they don't have the patience to wait in long lines? How can there be peace and goodwill if the Prince of Peace is pushed aside in favor of a fat man who makes false promises that having new stuff will bring peace into a person's life?
Dichotomy.
Christmas should be a time of peace and goodwill and joy and even happiness. Christmas, more than any other time of year, should see less lonely people and more caring and selfless acts of love.
I tell you the greatest dichotomy of all is that Jesus chose to save us. And he didn't observe us as a shopper observes potential buys in a store. No, Jesus didn't pick and choose which of us were more deserving than the other to become His own. And He didn't come with any delusions of our short comings and breath taking failure as the collective human race. Oh how we have failed God and the purpose He had for us.
But Jesus saw our sorry state just as He sees us today. All the broken smiles, all the lonely sighs, all the frightened hearts, all the sorrow and pain. Jesus sees us as we are and instead of turning away in revulsion He opens His arms. How can it be that such a beautiful, perfect, holy God desires us?
It is possible to look beyond all the glitter and noise of the holiday and experience that quiet, gentle, awe-inspiring peace we desire. The world and its ways will not change but it doesn't have to.
Dichotomy is the change of one troubled heart finding peace amidst chaos. It is one lonely heart finding at long last that it finally belongs. It is personified in the God Man: Jesus Christ. He is heaven's Divine Dichotomy to mankind.
Let us be the messengers, the hands, the voices, that Jesus can use to help the world see His arms are open and waiting.
So I say to you and everyone I meet, Merry Christmas! May the peace of Jesus Christ find you today.
" For today in the city of David there has been born for you a savior,
who is Christ the Lord."
~ Luke 2:11
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