Christmas is almost here. Our preparations are almost complete, family and friends will soon be traveling to the homes of loved ones, children are anticipating the magic of Christmas Eve, and people of faith are contemplating the audaciousness and radicalness of the incarnation … when God became flesh and dwelt among us.

As a child, like most children, I loved Christmas. Being raised in the church, I always looked forward to singing the carols of the season. My favorite, then and now, is “Joy to the World.” In a nutshell, that is what Christmas is all about! To this day, I get a tear of gratitude in my eye when I sing:

Joy to the world, the Lord is come!

Let earth receive her King;

Let every heart prepare Him room,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven and nature sing,

And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

The older I get, the more I realize that our children understand Christmas better than most of us. As I recently roamed among the children and grandchildren of the employees of Davis & Elkins College at a Christmas event, through the children’s eyes I was reminded again of the magic and mystery of this season. Beyond receiving toys on Christmas morning, as wonderful as that is, our children internalize the specialness, the uniqueness and the awe that surrounds this annual celebration. For all God’s children, young and old, the importance of family, friends, charity and the message of “… peace on earth, goodwill to all …” drowns out the noise of selfishness, negativity and cynicism that seems to be amplified more and more with each passing year. The spirit and message of Christmas reminds us of how God intends his creation, the people of this world, to live and interact.

The Christmas message, for those of us who claim the Christian faith, must never lose its radical nature.

To claim that the God of the universe chose to come among God’s creation as a vulnerable baby is revolutionary.

Born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough, rather than a palace and a bejeweled bassinet, God made quite a statement about experiencing human-ness and exalting humanity over wealth and power. Rather than allowing our Christmas celebration to be sanitized and secularized, I am heartened to witness followers of that baby kneeling in humility and serving the least, lost and broken.

Joy to the world is proclaimed in life-changing and life-giving actions of a people who stand in awe of the majesty and mystery of the incarnation … when God became flesh and dwelt among us.

With a tear in my eye, I join with our children as they sing and proclaim the radical message of Christmas:

He rules the world with truth and grace,

And makes the nations prove

The glories of His righteousness,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders of His love,

And wonders, wonders, of His love.

Merry Christmas! The journey continues