Angels We Have Heard on High

Christmas these days is strange and wonderful. It’s strange that Christmas can make or break the year for many businesses. It’s wonderful that Christmas can bring together millions of families every year. It’s strange that Christmas transforms neighborhoods, shopping malls, and restaurants almost overnight. It’s wonderful that Christmas brings the beauty of trees, lights, and wreaths. It’s strange that Christmas affects millions of people who have little interest in Christ. It’s wonderful that Christmas seems to make everyone a little kinder and warmer for a month or so. It’s strange that people flock to malls and scour the internet looking for the perfect gift. It’s wonderful when a season of giving leads us to consider God’s plan to give us the ultimate Gift.

As strange and wonderful as Christmas can be in our culture, it doesn’t compare to the coming of Christ. It’s strange that an angel would appear to shepherds, unclean outcasts on the outskirts of town and the fringes of society. It’s wonderful that God would do this, so that no one would feel beyond the reach of His grace. It’s strange that the angel would say to the shepherds, “For unto you is born this day…a Savior.” It’s wonderful that God would give His greatest Gift, not just to Mary and Joseph, but to the shepherds, and by implication, to the world. It’s strange that the sign of this wonderful news would be a baby lying in a manger. It’s wonderful that when God became man, there were perhaps more animal than human witnesses. It’s strange that the King of Kings would take his first nap in a feeding trough, so far from the comforts of a palace. It’s strange that a baby being born would lead angels to sing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased!” It’s wonderful that God Himself would be our peace, a peace that surpasses any temporal or geopolitical peace.

Have we adequately reckoned with the strange wonder of Christmas? In this season, the world invites us to come and see a thousand good things and miss the one thing that really matters. We’re tempted to think that getting this or giving that or displaying this or decorating that will somehow bring us peace and joy. All the distractions make it really hard to “come to Bethlehem and see Christ, whose birth the angels sing.” As we come and behold Christ, we are reminded that our worship is often misdirected. May we not let familiarity distract us from the strange wonder of Christmas! Who but Jesus is worthy of our coming and worshiping on bended knee? Who but Jesus can bring us the peace that we need with God? Who but Jesus can give us something, not just to come and see, but to go and tell? Brothers and sisters, during this Christmas season, fear not, for behold, the Lord has brought us good news of great joy. For unto us was born that day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. There’s nothing more strange or wonderful. Gloria, in excelsis Deo!