The other night we piled in the car with our jammies on and took the kids on a drive down Christmas Tree Lane. This iconic Christmas light show has been operating for 95 years in our city of Fresno. As we were inching down the two-mile-long lane, my 6-year-old Zayla squealed with delight. “Mama, mama, look!” I heard her say. “It’s the Activity Scene.”
We all giggled when we saw her pointing at this beautiful wooden Nativity Scene lit up in front of one of the houses. It was so cute I didn’t even bother correcting her.
After all, there was a lot activity in that scene. And there’s lots of activity in this season. If we don’t take time to pause and ponder these things in our hearts, we might miss the wonder of it all. We could miss the heart of Christmas, which we have been anticipating and awaiting all month long.
Over the last three weeks of Advent, I have invited you to Behold the Creator, Behold the Good News and Behold the Christ Child with me. My prayer has been that this Behold devotional would provide a fresh lens for us to see Advent. Friends, what we behold reveals our hearts.
This is the fourth week of Advent, but also a unique year because Christmas Eve falls on the final Advent Sunday. Let’s lean in close and remember why there is so much activity to behold in the scene. This baby laying in a rustic, uncomfortable manger was born with one main purpose: to be our Savior.
All of the Bible points to the coming of this Savior. By some estimates, there are more than 300 Old Testament passages that talk about the coming Messiah in great detail. The Jews waited for hundreds of years for this promise to be fulfilled. In Luke 19, Jesus speaks his purpose again: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10). Jesus was a promise fulfilled to all of us.
All the details are right there in the Christmas story, according to Luke, when the angel visited the shepherds in the fields: “And the angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord’” (Luke 2:9-11).
Many of us who have grown up in Christian churches could probably recite these verses from memory. We have heard and read these scriptures dozens of times. We continue to sing the Christmas carols that tell the miraculous story. This passage in Luke is at once a gentle whisper and a loud anthem, reminding us we do not need to fear for the good news is our Savior has come.
The message repeated could become rote or it could serve as the most important daily reminder: Every one of us needs a savior.
Are you battling fear today?
Maybe you are fearful someone will find out about your sin and your shortcomings. Maybe you are fearful you are not good enough. Maybe you are fearful to embrace joy after the death of a loved one. Maybe you are fearful about your future or the future of your children.
I have been there.
Every time I am tempted to succumb to fear, the words of the angel wash over me. Fear not, for behold the good news that God sent His one and only son to be our Savior. I don’t want to have amnesia on this point. I don’t ever want to forget why I desperately need a Savior.
This is the fourth Christmas my husband has spent in Heaven. My mother-in-law and I were having lunch the other day and talking about how amazing Christmas must be in the presence of God. As much as we deeply miss our Ericlee, we do not wish for him to come back to earth. He has a new glorious body free from cancer and the sin of this world. He is relishing eternity with his Savior. We will join him there one day.
And this, my friends, is why we all need a savior. Our citizenship is in heaven. We are to behold Heaven as an integral part of Christmas. When the Savior was born and then died and rose again, we were all given a chance to unwrap the gift of grace.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in Philippians that we are to long for Heaven. He writes, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” (Philippians 3:20-21, NIV).
Behold, Jesus is our Savior. He came to reveal God and all His glory to us. He came to rescue the exploited, to revive the weary, to restore the brokenhearted, to reclaim the marginalized and redeem all who believe. He will take us to Heaven one day for the grandest Christmas celebration.
*This article was written as part of a four-part Advent devotional on the theme “behold.” For a copy of this year’s devotional + audio, sign up here, and I’ll deliver it straight to your inbox.
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