As we enter this holiday season, our thoughts focus on the meaning of Christmas. Often the true significance is nudged into second or third place for many of us, as the tinsel and blinking lights tend to diminish the allure of that true light of the world, Jesus Christ. It’s like going to a birthday party where more attention is given to the decorated birthday cake than to the one whose birthday it is. 

However, if it were left up to the writer of the Gospel of St. John, we would never forget what Christmas is about – God’s amazing provision for sinful, lost mankind. In fact, John does not even portray the Christmas story with all its physical effects as do the other Gospel writers. There is no mention of the manger, the star, the heavenly host or the visiting shepherds. Instead, he writes a very poignant description of what truly took place from the very inception of God’s plan to its realization in time and space. 

Creativity is never uniquely manifested in concrete form. It is not a spur of the moment happening. Creativity always appears first as an idea or concept. Writers, artists, musicians, or sculptors never produce their works of art without an idea first forming in their minds. Many will brood over an idea for years before the idea takes on a form that can be appreciated through the senses by others, whether through touch, hearing or sight. 

Graphic: Giorgione - Adoration of the Shepherds - National Gallery of Art. Wikimedia Commons. Public Domain.

The Apostle John enables us to see that the birth of Christ was conceived millennia before it took place. It was the idea and the plan of God from the very beginning. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning . . . The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1: 1, 14) 

God brooded for years over His remarkable idea of bringing salvation to earth; and in the fullness of time, He gave His idea flesh and brought forth the Word in the form of a Jewish baby boy: His only Son. It was more than a stroke of genius. It was a stroke of wisdom and power. Christmas is the grand climax of creation. 

As we celebrate Christ’s birthday, let’s not focus on the party’s decorations; let’s focus on the birthday honoree—Jesus Christ, and celebrate God’s wonderful idea, which was conceived in the very beginning of time and eternity.