We Stand Upon The Threshold

We Stand Upon the Threshold           

By John W. Vander Velden

Our satellite TV provider teased us by offering the Hallmark Channels for a few weeks.  In October for a time we had two, then one, and later the third I’d never heard of. It was during Hallmark’s “holiday push” season and we saw many, and I do mean many, Christmas movies.

We enjoyed the presentations we watched but I would say that of these holiday specials only a few were truly “Christmas Movies”.

You see most focused on the “magic’ of Christmas, how things became different around a calendar date, or how a romantic event hinged on a specific number. It is as if December 25 is, of itself, some sort of mystical power to change people’s lives...though temporarily...into something amazing.

Pleasant little stories.

But we stand on the threshold! And those of us that KNOW that Christmas is much more than a date understand that.  Yes, we too get swept away by all the “stuff” that we think we need to accomplish...before, but we have not forgotten the reason. Hopefully while we hustle about writing cards and letters, while we shop for and wrap gifts, while we set up decorations and play holiday music, our minds remain focused upon “the reason for the season”.

It isn’t the date that matters. The twenty-fifth of December is not some magic number. We set that day aside to celebrate a flashpoint in history. The event that changed how we view the universe. The method we used to count history is based on a singular event...the birth of Jesus.

Gifts, cards, music, decorations, movies, are all just fluff.  For God, the master and creator of everything that was, everything that is, and everything that will be, so loved the world that he sent his Son, a baby born of peasants, born in the humblest of circumstances, born to a dark lost world.  Yes, God loved the world...the seas and mountains, the grasslands and lakes, the valleys and rivers...He loves it all. But God’s love...the love that powered the greatest gift...His Son...was his love for you...his love for me.

That is the thought that brings me to tears time and time again. The effort God took to reach out in love to me. That He sent his son to live as a human, so I am unable say, “God, You do not understand what I face,” because Jesus faced it too! Jesus was poor. When Joseph and Mary fled to Egypt to escape the madman King Herod, Jesus became a refugee. Jesus had been hungry. Jesus faced loss, and pain, and disappointment. There were time when Jesus became angry. He was human in every respect. You see God understands, and the birth of Christ proves that He cares.

Christmas is the beginning of Easter. You might think that is a strange statement.  But the birth of Jesus Christ began the series of events that led at last to the cross and resurrection. Jesus...Emanuel...God with us...lived to teach us about God with firsthand knowledge. Showing us the truths about His Father...our Father...we could never have learned any other way. That is what brings me to tears...the truth exposed of just how much God loves me...that Jesus saves me...that the Holy Spirit will never abandon me. That no matter how dark the nights of my life might seem I know I am never alone, that the journey I walk will at last lead me home.

We stand upon the threshold...and Christmas is the opening of the door!

12-21-2018 (609 Words)