“The Child . . . you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. (Matthew 1:20–21; 2:11, NASB).
Last Christmas saw the release of the third movie in the Narnia series—The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Great movie. But I missed a cool line from C.S. Lewis’s book. In it, an incredulous Eustace skeptically listens to Ramandu who claims to be a “star at rest”—a retired denizen of the skies.
“‘In our world,’ said Eustace, ‘a star is a huge ball of flaming gas.’
‘Even in your world, my son,’ replied Ramandu, ‘that is not what a star is but only what it is made of.’”
There is a difference between what something is, and what something is made of.
Empirical observations about the world may not necessarily be all that there is to the universe. Copernican, Newtonian, and Einsteinian observations alone may not provide us with the full equation. In other words, What You See Is Not What You Get: WYSInotWYG. Things may be more than what they seem to be.
At Christmastime, on the surface, things look pretty mundane—another church festival. The same old glitz, glamour, and glim. Tinsel, trinkets, and trim.
What else could it be? Long time ago. In Bethlehem. Another child. Another teenage mom. Another stressed out dad. Nobody important. No limos all black. No coaches all gold. No gun-toting militia. No purple-clad horsemen. No throne. No crown.
Just a child in a manger. Some cows. Some oxen. Some locals. WYSIWYG, right?
Wrong! Christians claim that WYSInotWYG. This was no ordinary child, no standard-issue son, no run-of-the-mill 46XY. This was a divinely appointed Savior, as the Lord announced: a Child who came to save us from our sins.
WYSInotWYG. Another child, we could ignore. Another soul added to the world’s tally of billions, we could forget. But not the birth of this One.
And we who believe that this Child is our Savior—we can have only one response, that of the wise men: “They saw the Child … and they worshiped Him” (Matthew 2:11).
Come and worship the Child, our Savior, our Lord!