As I write this, it is all but the dead of winter. Okay, officially winter just arrived earlier this day at 4:21am. What is more, it will last for another three full months. So that would technically make the dead of winter a month and half from now, or halfway through the winter months. But given the fact that it will be a bone-chilling 22 degrees tonight on this, the shortest day of the year, I stand by my assertion.
As I look outside my window, all trees save for the Cedars, which are evergreens, are stripped of their foliage. For the time being, at least, they have ceased to photosynthesize, and now sit dormant for the season. In the fulness of time, they will put forth new foliage and begin the process all over again.
That is a quality of all the tress in my yard. They are perennial in nature. This means they come back year after year. The same is true for the grass in my yard, as it is for the shrubs and several of my wife’s decorative plants. But not for all of them.
For many of the flowers she put out in the spring to beautify our home were not perennials, but rather annuals. When planted they, too, grew, budded, and bloomed. But they only did so for one cycle. Thereafter, they were done. And after time, they were all but forgotten.
Think about it… Yes, they were once here. They once stood proudly, flowing back and forth in the wind, drawing the eye of all who passed by. They once proclaimed their magnificence to anyone who would behold them in their short-lived glory. But only once. For after having once strutted themselves in their opulence, they never did so again. Instead, their destiny was to have their remains plucked up and cast aside even as another generation of annuals eagerly waits to take their place in the sun.
Conversely, the many wonderful cedar trees that inhabit our property all stand tall day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, unceasingly clothed in a rich blanket of greenery as they silently testify to the ongoing hardiness of life which nature has imbued within them.
I trust you see my point. “Here today, gone tomorrow” versus “Here today, here tomorrow”! Which would you rather have as your testimony? Sure, the cedar trees will not shoot forth this spring with an abundant adornment of flowers that scream, “Look at me! Look at me!” But when those plants that do so have long disappeared, the cedars will still be standing tall, boldly declaring the strength of the life they have within them. Even in the dead of winter!
I share this with you four days out from Christmas in order to illustrate what Christ has done for us by His incarnation. He came into this world for one reason – to imbue us with life! Before God clothed himself in human flesh and came into this world, ours was but a fleeting existence. At best, all that could be said of any of us was that we were born, we lived, and that we tried to have significance. But we still eventually passed off the scene, destined to be forgotten for all eternity.
But the incarnation changed all that. For, as the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians (in his Second New Testament Letter, chapter 5, verses 16-21):
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And this is why Christmas matters! For by sending His One and Only Son into this world, our Heavenly Father was reconciling us to Himself through Jesus Christ. As the Apostle John puts it (in his First New Testament Letter, chapter 5, verses 11-15):
11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Did you catch it? Without Christ, we have no life. But with Christ, we have life, and we have that life to the full! In other words, “here today, gone tomorrow” or “here today, here forever”!
Given this, I echo the admonition of the Apostle Paul as I say, “I implore you, my friend, on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God this Christmas!” For in so doing, you will receive the greatest gift you could ever be given – the gift of eternal life!
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/2_corinthians/5.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_john/5.htm.
https://biblehub.com/john/10-10.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/12/20/winter-solstice-2024-first-day-of-winter/77085291007/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial.
For what it’s worth, the technical definition of a perennial is that which lives longer than two years. This distinguishes it from either an annual or a biennial. By definition, this certainly makes the truth of Christmas a perennial truth, as it has been with us for some two thousand years now. But more to the point, the truth of Christmas is eternal. For not only has it been true for two millennia; it will continue to be true for all eternity as well!
As I look outside my window, all trees save for the Cedars, which are evergreens, are stripped of their foliage. For the time being, at least, they have ceased to photosynthesize, and now sit dormant for the season. In the fulness of time, they will put forth new foliage and begin the process all over again.
That is a quality of all the tress in my yard. They are perennial in nature. This means they come back year after year. The same is true for the grass in my yard, as it is for the shrubs and several of my wife’s decorative plants. But not for all of them.
For many of the flowers she put out in the spring to beautify our home were not perennials, but rather annuals. When planted they, too, grew, budded, and bloomed. But they only did so for one cycle. Thereafter, they were done. And after time, they were all but forgotten.
Think about it… Yes, they were once here. They once stood proudly, flowing back and forth in the wind, drawing the eye of all who passed by. They once proclaimed their magnificence to anyone who would behold them in their short-lived glory. But only once. For after having once strutted themselves in their opulence, they never did so again. Instead, their destiny was to have their remains plucked up and cast aside even as another generation of annuals eagerly waits to take their place in the sun.
Conversely, the many wonderful cedar trees that inhabit our property all stand tall day after day, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, unceasingly clothed in a rich blanket of greenery as they silently testify to the ongoing hardiness of life which nature has imbued within them.
I trust you see my point. “Here today, gone tomorrow” versus “Here today, here tomorrow”! Which would you rather have as your testimony? Sure, the cedar trees will not shoot forth this spring with an abundant adornment of flowers that scream, “Look at me! Look at me!” But when those plants that do so have long disappeared, the cedars will still be standing tall, boldly declaring the strength of the life they have within them. Even in the dead of winter!
I share this with you four days out from Christmas in order to illustrate what Christ has done for us by His incarnation. He came into this world for one reason – to imbue us with life! Before God clothed himself in human flesh and came into this world, ours was but a fleeting existence. At best, all that could be said of any of us was that we were born, we lived, and that we tried to have significance. But we still eventually passed off the scene, destined to be forgotten for all eternity.
But the incarnation changed all that. For, as the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians (in his Second New Testament Letter, chapter 5, verses 16-21):
16So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
And this is why Christmas matters! For by sending His One and Only Son into this world, our Heavenly Father was reconciling us to Himself through Jesus Christ. As the Apostle John puts it (in his First New Testament Letter, chapter 5, verses 11-15):
11And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. 14This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.
Did you catch it? Without Christ, we have no life. But with Christ, we have life, and we have that life to the full! In other words, “here today, gone tomorrow” or “here today, here forever”!
Given this, I echo the admonition of the Apostle Paul as I say, “I implore you, my friend, on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God this Christmas!” For in so doing, you will receive the greatest gift you could ever be given – the gift of eternal life!
SCRIPTURE:
https://biblehub.com/niv/2_corinthians/5.htm;
https://biblehub.com/niv/1_john/5.htm.
https://biblehub.com/john/10-10.htm.
SEE ALSO:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/12/20/winter-solstice-2024-first-day-of-winter/77085291007/.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perennial.
For what it’s worth, the technical definition of a perennial is that which lives longer than two years. This distinguishes it from either an annual or a biennial. By definition, this certainly makes the truth of Christmas a perennial truth, as it has been with us for some two thousand years now. But more to the point, the truth of Christmas is eternal. For not only has it been true for two millennia; it will continue to be true for all eternity as well!