A Place to Be BornSample

THE BIRTH OF JESUS

“Then the Lord God said to the snake: — For what you have done, you will be punished. Among all the animals, only you will receive this curse: from now on you will be crawling along the ground and will eat the dust of the earth. I will make you and the woman enemies of each other, and so will your offspring and hers. It will crush your head, and you will prick the heel of her offspring.” (Genesis 3.14-15) 

Anyone who thinks the birth of Jesus was a last-minute solution, an unexpected adjustment to something that had fallen out of God's ethereal control, is mistaken. The Genesis text reveals this. The coming of Jesus was already established even before creation, and the circumstances in which Adam, Eve, and Satan were involved never took God by surprise. The foreknowledge of the Eternal, divine facet of his sovereignty, becomes even clearer when we see that, even for the recent problem of sin, God had already prepared the solution. Peter explained it this way: “You were delivered by the precious blood of Christ, which was like a lamb without blemish or blemish. It was chosen by God before the creation of the world and has been revealed in these last times for your benefit.” (1Peter 1.19,20)

This reality is so certain that it is presented in detail in Revelation 12, a text in which John makes a point of explaining that the “old serpent” was Satan, who was warring in the heavenly regions, wishing that the child would not be born. He tried, but the boy was born and, in the end times, he will crush the serpent's head, as prophesied in Genesis. Maybe these images look too strong for Christmas, but they're not. Jesus' birth took place in the midst of human conflicts and heavenly battles. His coming brought a solution to the greatest mystery of the universe, as Paul explains: “God, in all his wisdom and understanding, did what he had resolved and revealed to us the secret plan that he had decided to carry out through Christ. That plan is to unite, at the right time, under the authority of Christ, all that exists in heaven and on earth.” (Ephesians 1.8b-10)

The entire universe, before Jesus was born, looked forward to his coming. All of us, who were born after his coming, turned our eyes to that special night. Night of peace, Night of love… Regardless of when we are born, we all look in the same direction: the city of Bethlehem. This is Christmas: the universe looking in the same direction, according to what God had planned.

The birth of Jesus is not humanity's greatest milestone by chance. Regardless of whether or not it was exactly 2021 years ago, we are all looking in the same direction. We remember the star, the angels, the wise men, Joseph and Mary and even the animals in the stable. We look at that bucolic scene and we remember: "that baby is God, and even though he is God, he was born for us", and this all happened according to the Father's will, so this Christmas, when you go to sing the usual theme songs, join Paul and sing this song: “How great are the riches of God! How profound is his knowledge and his wisdom! Who can explain your decisions? Who can understand your plans? As the Holy Scriptures say: “Who can know the mind of the Lord? Who is able to give you advice? Who ever gave something to God to receive payment from him?" For all things were created by him, and everything exists through him and for him. Glory to God forever! Amen!" (Romans 11.33-36)