It’s one week before Christmas. Seven days. One hundred sixty-eight hours. The countdown is on. Presents still need to be bought and wrapped. Meals need to be planned and cooked. Decorations better be up, but if not, there’s still plenty of time for those last-week touches. What do you do seven days before Christmas?
I wonder what Mary and Joseph were doing the week before
Christmas? Had the edict to return to Bethlehem been issued yet? Were they
packing their bags for the trip? As they lay in bed that week before, was
Joseph gently holding his hand on Mary’s now large belly and feeling the baby
kick? Was Mary being constantly bombarded by questions like, “When do you think
the baby’s coming?” Was Joseph, the carpenter, putting the finishing touches on
a crib for his expectant son? They knew the baby would be arriving soon, but
did they know it was only one week away?
How their lives would change in seven days. And oh, how
things changed when Jesus came. And not just for the expectant parents, but for
the whole world.
In that one holy moment just one week away God would breath
into his lungs the first molecules of the air he had created. His human eyes would
see the first rays of light he had called into existence. His nose would smell
the not-so-pleasant aromas of the animals he fashioned. His skin would feel the
first touch of a human hand. The holy, infinite, divine spirit encased in
flesh.
The whole world changed when God became man - and that’s exactly
what happened. As mysterious and incomprehensible as it may be, the Bible makes
the claim that Jesus was fully God and fully man. John puts it well in his
reflection of the coming of Jesus as he simultaneously declares Jesus to be God
and human. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” wrote the beloved
apostle.
It all would happen in just one hundred sixty-eight hours.
But it really goes back much further than that. God had been planning this day for millennia.
This birth was centuries in the making. The
countdown started long before Gabriel let Mary in on the plan.
God dropped the first hint in the Garden of Eden shortly
after mankind rebelled. The great deliver Moses caught a glimpse of the plan
when he promised the coming of a prophet like him. Isaiah saw through his prophetic eyes that
not only would a special child be born, but the man he would grow to be would
die a sacrificial death. Prophet Micah even pinpointed the town he would be
born in – O Little Town of Bethlehem.
Did Joseph and Mary know that in seven days the dreams and
visions of prophets would come true?
His birth may be just one week away, but the plan was
conceived of even before time began. When God created us he determined to
become one of us. He came to us so we can come back to Him.
It’s one week before Christmas. Seven days. One hundred sixty-eight hours. In
one week we celebrate His coming. The arrival of God to planet earth as a man.
A coming that assures for us an eternity of weeks, days, and hours we can be with
Him.
