Last night, my family attended Andrew Peterson’s Behold the Lamb of God Christmas concert. But before the concert began, Mr. Peterson showed a trailer for Season Three of the Wingfeather Saga movie series. “Get ready for monsters,” Mr. Peterson told the audience as the trailer began to play. And during that three-minute preview, viewers saw monsters of guilt, monsters of shame, monsters of fear, and literal monsters who attempted to stop the Igiby children from ever being reunited.
During the next three hours, long after the trailer ended, my family sang, worshiped, and listened in delight with almost three thousand other Christians who were celebrating the Advent of Christ. And I realized, sitting in the front row of that massive church building, that Christmas is more about monsters than people might think.
Most of the time, Christmas is depicted with the pretty face of Mary, the golden coloring of the stable, the radiance of the star, and the worship of the kings. But in reality, Christmas is about a frightened teenage girl, terrified shepherds, and stables that probably smelled a lot more like animal dung than anything else. Fear, pain, confusion – the first Christmas likely wasn’t as beautiful as children’s picture books usually depict it.
The first Christmas was fraught with pain-filled, confusion-clouded people driven together by the sovereignty of God to welcome his Son into our dark world. Jesus came into monstrous danger to defeat dangerous monsters. When our families are exchanging presents on Christmas morning, feasting with extended family, and enjoying the huge arrays of Christmas cookies that seem to be ever-present at Christmas parties, do we remember the real reason for our celebrations?
Christmas is about monsters.
Monsters of sin, monsters of shame, monsters of guilt, monsters of fear.
In my household, we look forward to Christmas for months. But I don’t think, in my nineteen years of existence, that I truly realized the gravity of Christmas until last night. Sure, at the first Christmas there was worshipful awe, holy splendor, joy at the birth of the Christ Child. But the real reason Jesus came down to earth was to be murdered by the hands of men he created, to die in the most gruesome way the world had yet invented, and to willingly be sacrificed for the sins of those who sinned against him.
Standing there, singing the Doxology with thousands of other saints as the musicians slowly left the stage, I realized more clearly than ever that Christmas truly is about monsters.
Defeated monsters.
Christmas is about a Prince who left his throne to enter the womb of a scared teenage girl, to be born, to grow up, and to die to defeat sin once and for all. Jesus entered our darkness to defeat the darkness that enslaves us.
On Christmas morning, is this what you ponder when surrounded by the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree, the mysterious presents placed snugly under its branches, and the delighted squeals of your children as you prepare to reveal the surprises? In enjoying the Christmas festivities, we cannot forget the reason we celebrate.
Christmas is about monsters, and the Prince who came to defeat them.
The weary world rejoices. Let heaven and nature sing!
