“A Star In The Night”
The events, trappings and hype of this time of year stand as a mute reminder of the starkest reality of the saddest note in all human history. Christmas time as celebrated by more than one third of the world’s more than 6 billion people reminds us of birth and life with meaning and purpose. Yet, we find ourselves as little more than exiles upon this beautiful, all be it hostile world. We discover two powerful, yet divergent realities. On the one side the joy of birth, hope and new life, but on the other side humankinds monumental failure leading to sin and death. The great promise of the birth of the Christ child must always tempered and contrasted by the purpose of that birth “He will save his people from their sins” (Mt. 1:21). The final outcome of his life will be the ultimate solution to the banishment which was a death sentence for all mankind.
This stark reality is an oppressive often depressing reminder of the depths of man’s failure and loss. During these days filled with pageants, songs, candles, gifts, wishes of joy, peace on earth and good will toward men, the lack of good will and peace are also reminders of the vast distance the exiles have traveled from the paradise for which they were created, mankind’s true home world. Human failure is a constant reminder that we are Aliens, “Strangers in a Strange Land.”
Humankind's distant ancestors were banished, driven out of the paradise of man's birth, the Eden of their true heritage (Genesis 3:23). It was a wondrous, glorious world for which humans were created, the cradle of life in which mans innocent existence began. It was a world far different than the one we inhabit today. It was unique, tranquil, breathtaking, a world of true peace and freedom. In this land for a time at least, man was at peace with his environment, his fellow creatures and with his God. Man and woman enjoyed the communion for which they were uniquely created (Genesis 2). He was free to enjoy the blessings of his surroundings and free to choose between doing right or wrong. However, it is this very freedom given to us by our creator and benefactor that is the catalyst for their and our removal from this our home world, our native land.
Created with the inalienable right to choose ones own path, mankind has repeatedly used this freedom to make choices that they believed to be in their own personal self-interest. The original choice forced the first man and woman out of paradise into a hostile wilderness where heartache, thorns, thistles, grievous and laborious toil became their universal inheritance (Genesis 3: 16-20).
We are aliens’ destined by our own failures to live in an environment totally and completely foreign to the home world and to our created nature, but a world to which we have grown overly accustom and peculiarly enamored with its pleasures. One would not have expected mankind to have adapted so easily to a world that is so inferior and foreign to the one which was our native land. We are aliens who have assimilated into a culture an alien world not our own, but one which we have readily and easily grown to embrace and feel at home.
Generation after countless generation of rubbing elbows with this alien world has resulted in memory loss, forgetting nature of our true home and unique origin. We begin to look, smell and act like the inhabitance of this fallen world, walking programs, automatons, mere shadows of our true selves. What began as a yearning, an insatiable hunger for our home has become a faint tingle, a pin prick in the back of our minds, or like a pebble in your shoe, a sense that something about this world is just not right. It is not enough most of the time to make us want to change or seek to discover what it is that is just slightly of center about this life. It is an itch that we can’t seem to scratch, a scratchy sensation in the back of your throat that reminds you something is wrong but not bad enough to change or at least the urgency to do anything. The eons have past and we humans have become “comfortably numb.” Nothing seems to change for millennia.
Then suddenly a year came that at first blush seemed like all the other ages past. A messenger came from the home world, sent by the sovereign creator he appears in the night to a righteous young woman. To her amazement the messenger announces a simple but wonderful plan for the return of all the exiles to their homeland. It seemed too good to be true. Could it be that after all these eons that the exile would come to an end. This young virgin will be the mother of the returning king. The king who will restore, remake and renew the people. It is an unbelievable story that is laid out before the young woman in all its glory; she is fascinated by the tale. Yet, as unbelievable as it seems she believes and treasures the story, patiently waiting for the plan to unfold and her role to be made known (Luke 2 & Mt. 2).
Then on a still, dark starry night came a bright light in the desert night, a beacon of hope. It was a sign, a message from the creator that the fullness of time had come, a message missed by most inhabitance of the planet. However, for those few seekers still looking the brilliant light that illuminated the desert sky was a proclamation, an announcement of the coming king. The magi say, “We saw his star” (Luke 2). It is the word that echoes across time that can be still heard today. The King of your Home World is coming for you!” The world as you know it is about to change forever, to be transformed by your creator who will remake you in his own image.
Since the King is coming there are some key issues that should be addressed both by those who saw him and those who wish to see him today. How will He be received? Those who seek him fall into three categories. (1) The Agnostics (in the original meaning of the word) - Those who uncertain what to believe-they just don’t know for sure what or who he is. (2) The Antagonistic- Those openly hostile and wish to destroy him by physical or even with slander. (3) The Affirming- Those who acknowledge who he is and why he came. Those who (a)welcome him, (b)worship him and (c)walk away re-telling the story. The King is coming, The King has come. “We have seen His Star in the Heavens.” How will you receive Him?
Bob Phillips
