Christmas begins at Creation —
because it was Love that founded the firmaments.
He spoke, and the dust swirled, and the galaxies whirled into their place.
The stars He scattered to burn the dark of heavens.
The planet — each to orbit in their own intended track.
Who’d imagine that by His uttered words, the lights appeared?
That waters and lands would fill, vegetations sprout, and creatures come into being.
He who is from the very beginning — is the beginning.
He begins every single beginning.
“Indeed, from eternity I am He” (Isaiah 43:13)
Our sense of purpose and identity is birthed right there as He birthed the cosmos.
Right before we ever do anything, or become anyone; we were found in Him…made after Him.
And from beginningless beginnings into endless futures, Everlasting stands in our passage of time and puts himself into the speck of our universe.
The Light of the world becomes the life of man who lights our world, so darkness will never be able to quench it…
Because you see, to appreciate Christmas fully, it’s not about tallying what the year’s been to us — not about counting our gains or cussing our losses, but about holding onto this truth closely:
Christmas begins at Creation because the babe in the manger is the Creator of creation, the Word who in the beginning made all beginnings.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him, nothing was made that has been made.” (John 1:1)
This Son of Man who once trekked our dusty roads is the Son of God who breathed lives from the heaven He’d left behind.
This is the God of the I was, I am, and I will forever be.
He breathes eternity, bestows dignity, and bequeaths our reason for existence.
Savouring Christmas then is all about enjoying His gifts, and here is one for the taking —
He gives us the gift of identity; and scribes this into our soul:
We aren’t made out of some random collisions of matter and energy.
We aren’t mere clumps of accidental, incidental reactions in a universe undirected.
When it comes to our creation, the Creator went from “Let there be” to “Let us make”,
Because we are made out of a triune of love, an affinity of affection.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit intricately makes us, affectionately loves us, and ferociously fights to rescue us.
This is true —
Christmas begins with the charity of God.
It reminds us that we are a people loved, and never forgotten or forsaken.
And so believing the Christmas story isn’t some sort of a scientific suicide, but our invitation to rise in true faith.
“The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath is the everlasting arms”. (Deuteronomy) 33:27
So wherever you find yourself: singing carols, standing in hallways, or sitting under the sweeping stars, you can know that:
Love slips into the curvature of time and space to give us life and hope,
so we can always live towards eternity.
And no matter what the circumstances surrounding your birth, or what family you have been born into, your formation was founded in the very heart of God.
Don’t go searching for a reason for living, or to find some intelligence in the known universe when you can meet the Intelligent One behind many unknown universes.
He will pulsate your life with divine purposes, because
He truly is the God behind the story who ultimately became the story so we can have a true love story.
So here at the apple farm, we snapped away pictures and breathed this relief;
We never need to be someone else, never need to be somewhere else.
We are truly loved, fully owned, wholly claimed… right here right now.
…I am so deeply thankful for the work of Justin Brierley and his Unbelievable podcast.along with his book “Why After 10 Years of Talking With Atheists I’m Still A Christian”.
It’s saved us from many soul crises and have us sitting with science under the sweeping stars worshipping instead.