Life is not like a Hallmark movie! (I make this comment as a one who has seen more than his fair share of them this season). Life is not the homogenized version that we see on Facebook. (Few people share their struggle or sad times. Facebook creates a Disney like parody of real life.) Life, in a fallen world, is filled with hostile and sad people, broken and suffering bodies, tragic and unfortunate events. When we are not impacted by these things personally, it is almost impossible not to know people who are.
Christmas began in real life circumstances. A last term pregnancy is impacted by a decision far away in Rome. A couple who have been ostracized by community and family, join the streams of people travelling to complete the mandate from Rome. Though they return to a place of family, they are not met with family reception. Instead, they spend the night in the place where animals are kept. And a baby is born. This is not just any baby. The God of the Universe has stepped out of eternity into our time-space continuum: to live a life of sacrifice; to die a death of sacrifice.
Yet here is where the temporal reality of that Christmas meets the ultimate reality of Christmas. Life does not have to be what the fallen world thinks it is; life does not have to be dominated by the evil, by the stresses, by the pain, by the rejections. God Himself receives us. Immanuel. God with us. He brings, not the possibility of "peace on earth; goodwill towards men", but the reality of this condition. Ultimately, life is better than the Hallmark movie: the victory of Jesus applied to our lives will always result in the opposite of what He did: we will step out of this temporal and into eternity: a eternity dominated not by the brokenness of man, but the Power and Holiness of the Prince of Peace. That is the reality of Christmas.
