Week One - Day Six

We all thirst for something more! Whatever we may acquire, whatever we may enjoy, in the end we are left with a bitter taste, with the sense of something unfulfilled. I remember growing up in my hometown, one of the most depressing days was the Sunday at the end of the Christmas holidays. For some reason, at the evening worship service in our church on that Sunday, we would always sing the hymn, “Abide with Me, Fast Falls the Eventide…” and I felt the melancholy that every beautiful thing eventually comes to an end.

This feeling lies at the very heart of the meaning of Christian hope. C.S. Lewis explains it best when he says: “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.” For example: “A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water.”

Hope is the thirst for that “thing,” for that “other world.” We understand deep down in our hearts that there must be a reality beyond the reality our senses can grasp. But how can we know what it is and how to find it? Christmas is the answer! It is the invasion of this other kingdom into our world. It is the coming of heaven to earth. And this happens as the eternal Son of God enters our world. The evangelist John describes it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we observed His glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). So Christmas is the feast in which we celebrate that what we hoped exists, truly exists! This glory, beauty, meaning, fullness, grace, and truth that we longed for behind and beyond every desire of ours is indeed real. Christ is the fulfillment of all our longings and every hope, and Christmas is the celebration in which we rejoice in that reality!