You know that every great story starts with “Once upon a time”…when you hear those words…it makes you think a certain way…
Every great romance story has key ingredients – you need a hero, you have a beloved who has become lost or captured or stolen, you have an enemy or at least some tremendous obstacles, you have a daring rescue, and then you have the reunion…
Have you ever thought of Christmas in this way?
Let me show you…
Once upon a time, there was a King and he was Holy and He was almighty and He was Good and He was Just. And he created a beloved, a people that He made with His own hands. And His one desire was for them to belong to him, to be His own people.
The King had a powerful enemy who envied the relationship between the King and his beloved people. And almost immediately began poisoning the hearts and trust of the beloved people with seduction and suggestion. And, as is often the case, they developed what we would call, wandering hearts…the King always kept his promises to the beloved people but they would always break them.
Their wandering hearts and love for the King caused them to be separated, distracted, impure, lost and in darkness, asleep you might say, certainly unable to see or hear him.
Well, the King knew all along what it would take to win his beloved people back. It would take a daring rescue. It would take losing something very dear to him, but this love was worth it to him. The King would send his son, the prince to rescue the beloved people – he would risk it all.
But first, he knew that in order to awaken this love, he would have to appear in such a way that his love would recognize and see a rare beauty…and so he appeared in the form of a child, a baby. He knew that it would it be very important for the beloved people to see themselves in the prince. They could say, “He is like us…and if he is like us, maybe we could be like him.” And perhaps that would enflame their hearts for the prince.
Now part of this was for recognition because of course who can resist loving a child…but there was another purpose, the prince knew that in order to win the beloved people back, he would have to meet them where they were – he would have to descend to where they had fallen, which was in the darkness and decay of the world and bring light into that darkness in such a way that the beloved people would be able to step out of the darkness and follow the prince back. This would have to happen, not through a spell, not through magic but through true love and living in a way that made the love belong again to the king. And the people who were unable to do this on their own, would be given the power to step out of the darkness through the gifts of the prince – namely, his life, his words, his Spirit which he would give to them and his absorbing all the evil and corruption and darkness of the beloved people, so that it could be destroyed.
You see the love had lived so long in the darkness that it had become rather comfortable. And the enemy of the prince who was crafty, had seduced the beloved people into a way of living that was not worthy of the King. And because of who the King was, his character, his beloved people had to be made worthy of Him and they were not so, while in the darkness.
And so the prince had to come not only to be visible enough to be seen in the darkness, he had to teach the beloved people the way back to God, but also had to pay the price for the love’s unfaithfulness. Which he did with his life, but that’s a story for another time…
And so on an ordinary night, long ago, the prince came into the world, like any other child, and began the rescue of the King’s people. But it wasn’t easy, he was a prince born into poverty, he was light and he came into darkness, he was life and enemies wanted to kill him as soon as he was born…
I would tell you that this was the end, but it was just the beginning, because many of the King’s beloved people did see the beauty of the prince and fell in love with him and returned to the King with the hearts and with they way that they had lived, just as the King had known all along…the plan is working!
And although the darkness still existed, it was never the same after the prince’s arrival and the beloved people not only returned to the King but they started to help rescue others who were lost in the darkness by sharing the great story of the prince’s rescue – which drew people out of the darkness into the light.
And to this day, while the beloved people live for the King, they wait for the prince who after completing the rescue went back to the King and promised to return and bring them to the Kingdom one day…the great reunion that has already begun when the King and His beloved people will be reunited fully and forever, happily ever after you might say…
So I have no “The End” for you…this story is “to be continued” until that day…
Beloved people of God, this is no fairy tale romance, this is our good news story, our real story, our story of faith, and we are his beloved people for whom he sent his son the prince who would trade his life for ours to rescue us as well as giving us the power to turn away from the darkness and step toward the light…
Once upon a time, we were a people that walked in a deep darkness, but on us a light has shined. Once upon a time, on this wonderful, mysterious night, our hero, Jesus, came into this world disguised as a child and began rescuing us. Once upon a time, and even now…
Amen.
Living Water 