Merry Christmas!

On behalf of all of us at Core Academy, I'd like to wish you a very merry Christmas as we commemorate the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ. His first advent heralded the coming of the kingdom of God, which fully manifested after that baby's death and resurrection when God poured out his Spirit on the day of Pentecost.  Now we his children partake in the kingdom as we long with hope for the second advent of Jesus and the bright dawn of our own resurrection.  Today, as with all good things in this world, the celebration of Christmas ought to turn our minds to our Lord Creator and Savior.  Giving of gifts, gathering of family, and the great feast remind us of that final gathering when we will cast our crowns at the feet of Jesus, gather with the family of God, and feast at the great marriage supper of the Lamb.  Modern Christmas also offers us a contrast: Unlike our fantasies of Santa Claus, Rudolph, and Frosty, our hope in Christ is real.  The symbols of God in Christmas signify what will truly come to pass.  The blessed happiness of Christmas is a foretaste of our final destiny in Christ.  Even the bitterness of loss cannot overcome that glorious hope of the coming of Christ.  That baby that came first in the manger will come again to claim us as his own.

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.  Therefore encourage one another with these words.  (I Thess 4:16-18, ESV)

Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com. If you enjoyed this article, please consider a contribution to Core Academy of Science. Thank you.

Have you read my book?  You should check that out too!