The most amazing story ever!
Do you have favourite movies that you watch time and time again? Or books that you read over and over? I do! Why is it that we don’t get bored with these amazing stories even though we know the plot, the characters, the well loved lines, the music and even the ending?
The Good Guy Wins
On reflection, I realise that these stories all inspire me in some way to pursue selfless love, seek true justice, work for deep relational peace and continue to have hope, especially in the face of adversity.
My favourite stories usually end with the good guys vanquishing the bad guys, with justice being upheld, relationships being mended and good being victorious over evil, even if (and especially if) there is much sorrow, loss and hurt along the way.
Is this the way we feel about the Christmas story? We celebrate it, and retell it, year after year, but does it inspire and challenge us? It should!
Yet sometimes we can get caught up in the commercialisation, consumerism and busyness of Christmas. We don’t engage deeply with the Christmas story as we do with our other favourite stories. In doing so, we allow the most amazing and true story ever to lose its impact!
An Inspiring True Story with Power
If we have become overly familiar with the Christmas story, it is time to see it from a new and different perspective. We can see the Christmas story afresh, through the “big picture” lens of the whole Bible – the full account of God, his creation, our sin and his amazing plan of redemption and reconciliation.
Christmas, the birth of Christ, is at the centre of God’s plan. It is the beginning of the story of how evil and injustice in this world are defeated and good overcomes evil!
Christmas is the true story of how our loving, selfless God started his work to bring about true justice and deep relational peace with us by becoming a human being. This was his perfect plan to rescue us from eternal condemnation and punishment. In Christ’s birth, death and resurrection God showed the world that he is the source of true love, justice, peace and hope. Now that is truly something to celebrate and remember over and over and over again!
This year, let’s choose to remember Christmas in this bigger and deeper way. In re-telling the story of Christmas, let’s pray that God will motivate and empower us to imitate Jesus in in our relationships – so that God will be honoured and others will see God in us.
Even in the face of unjust situations and difficult people, may you know that God is sovereign. He loves you deeply and through trusting Jesus you are totally reconciled and completely free. Secure in that knowledge we are able to do the unnatural work of dying to self, and loving and forgiving others with the same “weapons” that our Christmas gift, Jesus himself used – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. (Gal 5:22-23)
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. (John 3:16-17)
To find out more about what the Bible teaches about overcoming evil with good read Chapter 12 of The Peacemaker (Ken Sande). (Over this year, through each edition of Peace It Together, we will be sharing the basic peacemaking principles as covered in each chapter of the book, The Peacemaker (Ken Sande).