The Crux of Christmas

Life. Have you noticed it? It often brings about sudden changes. Surprising and re-directing the course we are on…maybe the career major you began with doesn’t fit, or your job transfers you, or an engagement ends. Suddenly life shifts and you find you were re-routed? Life changes course.


Have you noticed this about Christmas? It is all about re-routing. As the days grow shorter and the dark lasts longer, our everyday-life begins to take on a different course: Suddenly we have festivities. Life takes on planning, baking, decorating, shopping, and gathering.


Sudden color in bland winter.


Sudden light in darker nights.


This is not only true of our Advent, but also characteristic of the whole beautiful story of Christ’s coming…

When the Angel Gabriel showed up in Mary’s life, she was engaged to Joseph. I imagine she had a ‘route’ in her mind of what life was going to look like with the wedding and then her ‘happily ever after’. But then God sent the message: He’d chosen her to bear His son and suddenly her life was re-routed.


Joseph too. He had in mind to marry a virgin, and when he found out she was pregnant, he must’ve gone through more than a little emotional turmoil. And he intended to divorce Mary quietly…when suddenly he too was visited by an angel and was convinced by God to take on His mission. Matthew 1:2024


Somewhere within 9 months later came that census where they had to haul off to Bethlehem to fulfill prophecy that the Messiah would be born there instead of Nazareth. Luke 2:4


Maybe seeing an angel in real life was like a shot in the arm of willingness, because I see no grumbling at all in the scriptures. Or maybe they felt the grumble rising up in their soul, but like I often have done, pushed it back, slaying it in the presence of God. Then, continued moving forward.


You know who the next ones to hear from angels were! Yes! The shepherds had a ‘fright’ while they were doing their day-in and day-out job.


I wonder if it was like the other night when I had my iPod playing on it’s speaker while doing dishes, and had no idea fireworks were scheduled to go off a few blocks away… and all of a sudden I heard loud firing noises and saw random flashing light, I thought I had a chimney fire!


At the visit of the heavenly chorus, the shepherds were re-routed too. They up and left their post to go see this Reason for the glory of the Lord showing up igniting their dark night. Luke 1:17


Then one more time an angel appears to Joseph and tells him to take his new little family and not just move, but to flee! “Take your wife and baby and flee to Egypt.” Matthew 2:13 …and away they went!


I think it is often that way in our walk with God. Okay, maybe not so spectacular as a chorus of angels in the night sky or fleeing to a foreign land, but it is often as dramatic, right? {Like a job loss, or a move, or a different career path or our eighth baby…} We are going along and suddenly He comes with a message, a turn of events and we are re-routed. Again.

As I see this in the Christmas story I’ve lived it since Christ was birthed into my life: Whenever God comes in, life alters and the life Ive been in the middle of living suddenly dies on the altar.


Christ comes and says, “Let’s go this way.”… and life is re-routed.


Encountering God is life altering. And then we put our life on the altar. We say, “Yes.” To God.


And this re-routing of Christmas was the ultimate turn around for the whole world!


And that time in my life when I believed I had lost my salvation and Christmas light broke in.


Since Emanuel came to be with us, He doesn’t often send angel-messengers from Heaven. Since Heaven came to earth, He mostly delivers His messages in person. He speaks by the voice of the Holy Spirit dwelling within. And He speaks by the word of God alive inside. Or by the voice of another, one full of His Spirit and His word.

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And if you notice in the telling of the stories of old, it’s been true all through time. God has been about the business of “re-routing”?


It happened with Noah. Genesis 6:13-14 It happened with Abraham. Genesis 12:1-2 It happened with Moses- Exodus 3:2 -and the Israelites. It happened with Gideon. Judges 6:12 It happened with Mary and Joseph. Matthew 1:20Matthew 2:13

And I’m guessing it’s happened with you too.


It’s the crux of Christmas really: Christ came down to turn things around for us, to re-route our course.



God the Father sent the Christ of Christmas for the Cross, so we could cross-over:


From death to life.


From darkness to light.

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From sinner to saint.


From destruction to destiny.


From fear to faith.


Perhaps during this season of re-routing, filling life with more, you could spend some time thinking of the ways your life has been re-routed by God. See Him in the transitions and see how He has equipped you, blessed you, and kept you through it all.


This is Christmas. It changes our hearts, changes our lives, and best of all, Christmas changes our destiny.


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