And the angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Luke 1:30-33
And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. 10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. 12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those
with whom he is pleased!”
Luke 2:8-14
It is not easy to celebrate the festival of Christmas in a spirit of true Christian worship and adoration, when so many worldly interests conspire to create an entirely false view of it and succeed in reducing it to a season that is ‘good for business', with booming sales in the shops and heavy spending by the public. And it is more and more incumbent upon us to resist the pressure put upon us to become embroiled and submerged in what can only be called a sordid commercial racket, and instead, allow something of the quiet wonder and mystery of the message of the angels to touch our spirits and remind us afresh what its real heart is.
Nor would this quench any generous impulse within us but rather quicken it and, more important, give it a new direction, away from mere romantic sentiment and into true Christian charity, as a worthy expression of the gratitude that wells up in hearts that know the indwelling of the Saviour.
It was Charles Dickens who said that there was magic in the very name of Christmas. We know, of course, what he meant, and few would be churlish enough to want to deny or stifle ‘the Christmas spirit’ that is abroad during the festive season. All the same, to speak in this way about Christmas is really to miss the point. For it is not magic that we are concerned with in the coming of Christ into the world, but mercy; and mercy means the supernatural.
This is precisely the note that has been lost and abstracted from the Christmas of our time. The angels and the star have become symbols of the romance and sentiment of the annual jollification, instead of signs of the Divine visitation to rescue and redeem men from the tragedy and woe of sin. The sense of the supernatural in the Christian faith has rarely been at such a discount; and having lost it, men have lost their humanity too, and any hope of true life. For God made us for Himself, and only when He ‘comes' to us (after our sin had driven us from Him) do we become ourselves. It is the supernatural that makes us natural and real.
Let us take time, then, this Christmas, to allow the Spirit of Christ to interpret the wonder and the mystery of the Incarnation to our deepest hearts, until they glow and thrill with the very immensity of the everlasting Mercy, making all our rejoicing and all our giving an expression of our gratitude and thanksgiving to God for His unspeakable Gift.