Christmas: Now More Than Ever

Do you ever watch the news and wonder what in the world is going on these days?  For a while, it seemed like every week brought another natural disaster:  hurricanes, earthquakes, forest fires, etc.  Now, it seems like almost every day brings an allegation of sexual misconduct among famous people, including some of our governmental leaders.  In between, we have constant threats of war, threats of terrorism, mass shootings and attempted mass shootings, constant turmoil in Washington, D. C., and all kinds of other things that make us just shake our heads.  And just yesterday, natural disasters took another turn in the spotlight with a major fire in California.

And now, in the middle of all this, here comes Christmas.  A time when we celebrate the birth of the Savior.  The Light of the World.  The Prince of Peace.

It seems incongruous.  It doesn’t seem to fit, somehow.  With all this stuff going on, it doesn’t seem like there is much light in the world.  There doesn’t seem to be much room for a prince of peace.  The forces of darkness seem to be winning.  How can we celebrate Christmas when everything in the world seems to be going wrong?

The thing is, this is the time when we need to celebrate Christmas all the more.  This is the time when we need the hope of the Savior more than ever.  This is the time we need to keep our faith all the stronger.  This is the time we need to keep the love of God front and center all the more.

Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that human beings are not going to solve all these problems by ourselves.  Don’t get me wrong, we have a role to play.  I’m not suggesting we should just sit back and do nothing.  We always need to do whatever we can to make the world better.  That’s part of what loving our neighbor is all about. 

But a lot of these problems (not the natural disasters, obviously, but the others) are the result of human nature.  The bad side of human nature, but still, human nature.  We are, as human beings, imperfect, broken, fallen, sinful people.  I’m not saying we’re all evil.  The thing is, human beings have the capacity for great good and for great evil.  In the darkest times, the good that is in human beings cannot be completely done away with.  But in the best times, the evil that is in human beings cannot be completely done away with, either.  Evil is still lurking within us, waiting for a chance to come back and take control.

So the only way the world is really going to change is for human nature to change.  And the only way human nature can change is for God to bring about that change.

That’s why we need to celebrate Christmas now more than ever.  Because Christmas is proof that God can change the world.  We know God can change the world because God already did change the world.  That, in essence, is what we celebrate at Christmas:  God changing the world.  God proving God’s love to us.  God sending a Savior to give us a chance for forgiveness and salvation and eternal life.  God telling us that we don’t have to live in sin and misery.  We can have new life, both in this world and in the next one.  All we need to do is what Jesus told us to do.  All we need to do is accept Jesus as our Savior, show that acceptance by loving God and show that love by loving our neighbors and spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has changed the world.  And God is going to change the world again.  If all of us, as Christians, do our part, we know God will do God’s part.  And the world will change again, in ways that we cannot even imagine.

So celebrate the birth of the Savior.  Have faith in the Prince of Peace.  Because Jesus is still the Light of the World.  As John 1:5 says, “That light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”  And it never will.