Goodnight, Travel Well

*There's nothing I can say...
There's nothing I can do now...
The universe is standing still...
Goodnight, travel well.*
- "Goodnight, Travel Well", The Killers

I had been thinking about writing a new entry for Christmas. In fact, I said I would.

I was on facebook, and I was trying to figure out what to put as my status. I put way too much thought into my statuses.

I thought about putting in some Christmas lyrics...

Or some Bible verses from the Nativity story...

And I was thinking about doing the opening verse from the hymn 'Silent Night'. You know:

"Silent Night,
Holy Night,
All Is Calm,
All Is Bright.
Round Yon Virgin,
Mother and Child.
Holy Infant
So Tender And Mild.
Sleep In Heavenly Peace.
Sleep In Heavenly Peace."

And it felt trite. It felt cheesy. Like it was just a sweet, mushy Christmas song. I chose not to use it.

So, I kept thinking. I thought about the song "Better Days" by The Goo Goo Dolls. That song always makes me think about the REAL meaning of Christmas. (Here's a link if you haven't heard it before: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIFhst3DwPE)

But that still didn't feel quite right.

The reason we fall into materialism during Christmas, I think, is because we can't put the true meaning of Christmas into words that accurately convey the message.

Sometimes things get close to capturing it. Humans have trouble lumping profound things and child-like joy together.

Some people say stuff with a big grin, like, "Merry Christmas! Jesus is born!" and the profound-types roll their eyes at the simplicity of the statement.

But then, the profound-types say, "This isn't just 'Merry Christmas', we're talking about one of the biggest events in history!" and there's no joy in their words. No joy or happiness. Just quite reverence.

When Jesus was in the manger, surrounded by Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and barn animals, we get this impression that it was silent. We just have this instinctual inclination telling us that it was peaceful and quiet.

I think it was peaceful and quiet in an incredible, supernatural way. If you're in a barn, animals are going to make noise. Cows 'moo', donkeys 'hee-haw', chickens cluck. Etc. There's noise.

But we've got a silent night.

And nowadays, because we can't wrap our heads around the idea of 100% joy and 100% solemnity and peace, we bury ourselves in materialism.

Because who wants to have a major headache of confusion when you can just live in shallow bliss?

Finally, I just gave up on my Facebook status and said:

"Every Christmas at this time, I start thinking about the true meaning of Christmas and I just can't wrap my head around it. It's God's birthday. Mind-bogglingly powerful and confusing message..."

I just admitted I was confused. I think that it's very rare in life for us to have moments of true clarity when it comes to spiritual matters. Since the Fall, we've cut ourselves off from God. Meaning all things spiritual will make little sense to us. Every once in a while, you get that sudden spark during a sermon/worship service/prayer where you REALLY feel genuinely connected. It lasts for mere seconds. And then it's gone. And that's because of our Fallen nature.

Here's the other side of that coin:

God upholds the Covenant between Himself and man entirely. God does ALL of the work in upholding His promises. Christmas is a day to commemorate that God is active. God upheld his end of the Covenant and took action- He sent His Son Jesus, whom was fully God and fully human, down into a broken world in the form of a baby.

There aren't enough words. The true meaning of Christmas is similar to the true nature of God: indescribable. Because every time you try to describe it, it comes out trite and cliche.

You hear stuff that's either like:

"Come on, let's remember the REAL meaning of Christmas, guys. This is a serious matter."

OR

"Yay! It's Jesus' birthday! Praise God! :D"

And both are true, but both fall short of actually describing Christmas. Humans won't understand the true nature of spiritual things until the Second Coming. We're incapable. But as Christians, we try. We're truth-seekers. We WANT to know and to understand.

The point is, we can't describe Christmas because words will always fall short. So, just think about that as you're opening presents and eating with your families. You think OUR Christmas is fun? Wait until a REAL Christmas in a perfect world, where we understand the true meaning. That will be one of the most phenomenal things EVER. Understand that OUR interpretation of Christmas is broken, but it's important because we WANT to commemorate this incredible event.

If you want the true meaning of Christmas, well, you won't get it yet. But Christians try. Here's the best explanation of the true meaning of Christmas, from one of the brightest theologians of our times: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKk9rv2hUfA

Hope that wasn't over your head. :)

Anyway, Merry Christmas.

The Day The Earth Stood Still.

*One man, one mission
One plot to save the world
Reclaim all races
And embrace our destiny

Changing history when the colliding comes
Where will you run
Come with us if you want to live

Join us in the army that's arising
The truth invades your mind
Every day the Kingdom is advancing
The earth invasion has just begun.*

-Skillet, Earth Invasion

It's Christmas time! This is the first time I'll be doing some Christmas entries on WASD, and I'm very excited. I'll do at least one more before New Years.

The other day I heard a youth pastor refer to Christmas time as 'the Holy Invasion'. He was saying that when Christmas roles around, the people that only go to church on Christmas and Easter will dust off their nice clothes and head to church. But the term really stuck with me.

'Holy Invasion'.

When we think of Christmas- more specifically, Jesus as a person- we think of peace. We think of the man we see in paintings with brown hair, grinning from ear to ear and holding a small child.

Don't get me wrong: This is Jesus through and through. Jesus is 'shalom'. So the term 'Holy Invasion' almost comes across a little... rude, doesn't it?

But that's exactly what this was.

Let's get a little more specific. The word alien, before it came to mean little green/gray men (whatever suits you), meant 'outsider'. Something FOREIGN.

A holy being outside of everything we know and could possibly understand sends His Son, a being who is also God himself, into a sinful, broken world as a baby.

When Jesus is born, He is a PERFECT human being. He has no sin. 100% clean, all the time. And, He's also fully God. And the son of God.

Pause one second: If you didn't think of it as bizarre and mind boggling at first, try to wrap your head around it- Jesus was the Son of God and God the Father himself. I don't know about you, but that seems pretty 'foreign and strange'.

God has set in motion the perfect plan. He has sent His Son down into the world of sinners, 'fullness of God in helpless babe'. Not only does this prove His intense love for these sinners, he's willing to save them.

He sends His Son Jesus to Earth, knowing full well that Jesus will be persecuted for His entire life, until eventually He is crucified. How could any parent do that? We know that Jesus' death pained God intensely. The loss of a child pains the parent.

So, he sends his son, the PERFECT being, into a world under oppression. Literally, this was a 'Holy Invasion'.

Think to all those images of alien invasions from movies like Independence Day, The Day The Earth Stood Still, etc. This fits the criteria for the title of 'alien invasion'.

Jesus later says in the New Testament, "I come not to bring peace but a sword." Jesus is bringing change to the world. He's invading the culture, changing the way people understand God, saving literally MILLIONS of lives, and totally turning the established order on its head. This DEFINITELY falls in with the archetype of 'alien invasion'.

Rewind: 'Before' Jesus went into action, He was a baby.

Pudgy cheeks. Feet in mouth. Amazed by hands. Those are the images that come to mind when I think about babies. How could JESUS have been a baby?

But he was. So let's take the story to another angle- three wisemen have been tracking the stars, doing their thing, and they see a new star. They saddle up their camels and follow it, until it leads them DIRECTLY to Jesus. A little baby in a feeding box, with a loving mother just after labor and a father seeing to his wife.

If I was one of those wisemen, I would have found that a little anti-climactic. I mean, there's a NEW STAR in the sky, and it leads to a baby in a barn.

They come to the conclusion this baby is not what he seems. It is revealed to them that Jesus is the prophesied King of Kings.

These three wisemen go back to Caesar and talk to him about it. Caesar is ruling an empire right about now. He's happy with his life. He doesn't want some NEW KING coming to take all of this from him. And Satan slides right in and starts pulling the strings on Caesar.

There's a scene in an episode of Smallville (yes, I'm talking about Smallville again) that really fits this moment. In the episode 'Splinter', Clark gets a sliver of silver kryptonite into his blood, and gradually becomes more and more paranoid. He even starts hallucinating. Of course, all of his paranoia is tied to his biggest fear: his secret being discovered by the entire world.

In one scene, when he's hallucinating, he sees Lex holding a press conference. Lex exclaims:

"Clark Kent is an invader from another world, the first of an armada bent on enslaving this planet! But I know his weakness. I know how to stop him."

This is what Satan whispers into Caesar's ear.

Satan never works in complete lies. He deals in half-truths.

He tells Caesar that Jesus is from another world, an alien. (Truth)
He then tells Caesar that Jesus is bent on taking control from Caesar. (Lie)

Caesar tells the wisemen to bring him to the baby, so that he may 'worship him as well'.

The wisemen are like, 'yeah, like that's what you're gonna do.' The wisemen want this child alive- they know He is the Messiah. So they take off. They don't tell Caesar.

I don't know what my real point is, here. I guess I'm just trying to point out that Christmas is something MUCH bigger than we ever acknowledge it to be. It's not 'just' the birth of Christ, it's the BIRTH OF CHRIST. Bold-face. Underline. Exclamation points. It's an invasion about to change the entire world FOREVER.

And, I guess what I'm trying to say is: that's a BIG DEAL.