Radiant Beams?

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a Christmas grinch. I'm a big fan of all the fun, food, festivities, friends, family, and of course the furry man in red. I love Christmas, I really do.

Hopefully I've made that clear. Now, I do have a tiny gripe about a couple of the carols we sing (remember: not a grinch)..

Firstly, Silent Night. Nice song and all, but "radiant beams from thy holy face"? Really? Was baby Jesus like one of those glow worm toys that my daughter has? "Oh look Mary, looks like we don't need those candles after all." Did he somehow play soothing lullaby music too?

And Away in a Manger. "The cattle are lowing, the baby awakes, but little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.." No crying he makes? Is he some kind of angelic cherub baby? Was Jesus the only baby who never cried? I wonder if people somehow think that even as a baby, Jesus knew all the secrets of the universe. "Oh it's just cows lowing. That is how I designed them after all..." I think if we sang this song to Mary, she would probably say "Tell em they're dreaming."

Jesus was born a human, just like the rest of us, and he would have done the same things as the rest if us. Crying, sleeping, eating, pooing, completely dependant on his mother.. He knew what was involved before he decided to come to earth. He's not opposed to all our humanness. That's how he made us and he loves us for it.

Here's what's really going on in these songs.. Over the years, Christians have at times tried to play down Jesus' humanness, generally alongside a dualistic belief that everything earthy and human is bad, and only the "spiritual" things are good. This is not accurate at all, and it has a far-reaching effect in our thinking about everything else. If everything earthy and human is bad, then the only solution would be to destroy the earth and the human body, and take the good "souls" to some kind of disembodied heaven (which is what many people believe Christianity is all about). While this is a very commonly-held view, it's not a Biblical idea at all. It comes from Greek philosophy actually. Thanks Plato and friends.

The actual Biblical viewpoint is that God LOVES the humanness of humans and the earthiness of the earth. That's how he created it all in the first place. And when Jesus finally reappears to set everything right, it will be to restore the earth to what it was always meant to be: a more incredible earth, married to heaven, like this one but even more so. And he will restore us and our bodies so that we're MORE human than we are now, with less limitations, more alive, more present, more ourself, than we've ever been before. This is only a shadow of our future self. We're practically asleep, compared to how alive we'll be then.

"Joy to the World" hits the nail on the head when it describes all of creation in celebration - the "fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains, repeat the sounding joy.." Why would the earth be happy if it was going to be scrapped? It would be more like "Oh crap, it's time. Well, it's all over boys. It's been a nice ride.."

No. The King is here and that means things are going to finally be put RIGHT. Restoration begins. For everything. And so everything celebrates.

Sing the carols at Christmas, celebrate, have fun with friends and family, and remember this: the king is here, and that brings hope for EVERYTHING.

Steal some time this Christmas to contemplate what that means.