The Universal US

For to us a child is born
To us a son is given.....
   Isaiah 9

I just love Isaiah. How strange it must have been for both Isaiah and other prophets
whose prophesies included a look far into the future to the birth, life and death of
Jesus! I have heard this discussed as prophets standing on their tiptoes seeking to
see into the future of God's plan.

The words of this glorious chapter include the four names that this special child
would be called: wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father and prince
of peace. This child, a light sent into the darkness of a fallen world and into the
darkened fallen hearts of his created, was and is God over all creation. Indeed
God sent a baby to counteract the chasm that exists between the Creator and 
His creation, and this baby will continue the process of re-doing all of creation
until it falls under His divine will and control.

The US in the above two lines is of supreme importance. The very God of the
cosmos, one who came into this time-space to enact great changes and achieve
great victory, came for US. That isn't us vs them sort of stuff. He came here in
love for each of us that we might have the possibility of being adopted into the
family of God based upon the grace and love of God. This God woos and seeks
His created. He cannot and will not, however, accept those who reject, who
are unwilling, who have deceived themselves into believing that they have
no need of being saved.

Our secular, societal re-make of Christmas endangers us by slipping the real
celebration of this amazing birth away behind the shelves of gifts, lights
and stuff. Christmas lights should remind us, in fact, of that great light that
had fallen into and upon the world....

The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light,
They that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

It is Christmas; a celebration of the greatest gift ever given, the gift of
reconciliation, atonement, propitiation.... not stocking stuffers...
life savers. Celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart. Merry
Christmas!