Feel free to take this and make it your own. But if you are doing it in the open air at a street carol service, please keep it short!
This is not the Christmas we expected. Christmas is a time when we gather, embrace, and see the faces of loved and distant family. But it’s only when we mustn’t do those things that we realise how precious they are to us. The government is telling us to remember Hands, Face, Space to keep us safe. And that is the message of Christmas too.
Christmas is first and foremost about a rescue plan God put into place. We have faced many problems during lockdown, but the Bible tells us that we have a serious problem that we don’t give enough thought to. We are separated from God — not socially distanced, but spiritually distanced. Christmas is about the initiative God took to close that gap. And he did it by sending his Son into the world. We need to be reconciled to God, we need to be forgiven by God, we need to find peace with God (Col 1:20). And this was God’s Christmas plan.
The centre of Christmas is the birth of the Lord Jesus as a tiny helpless baby. But this is no ordinary baby. The Bible tells us that "The Son is the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). What this means is that God is no longer a mystery to us or a guessing game. When you look in the face of Jesus Christ, you are looking in the face of God. Jesus was born to reveal God to us in all his fulness — and we discover a God who is just and righteous, but also loving, merciful and full of compassion towards the weak and the helpless. But how would this rescue happen?
Parents are always amazed at the tiny hands and fingerprints and fingernails of infants. The tiny hands of the first Christmas baby grew to be the strong hands of a carpenter. Strong hands that healed with the power of God. Strong hands that did amazing miracles to show who Jesus truly was. But they were hands that were pierced with nails when Jesus gave himself up to die so that we might be reconciled to God. So that the space between us can be closed. So that we embrace God again, and look into his face as a loving father, not as a righteous judge. Our passage says that at the first Easter, Jesus was "making peace through his blood, shed on the cross” (Col 1:20).
Christmas is a wonderful opportunity for us to gather with family and friends and neighbours. To share gifts, to sing songs, to celebrate all the ups and downs of the last year. But is also the opportunity to respond to God’s greatest gift of forgiveness, new life and a fresh start with Jesus. Will you pray with me?
For a warm, gentle introduction to the Christian message, take a look at our Christmas tract for this year, Christmas hope in a covid world. It’s ideal for churches to put through doors or for you to slip into a Christmas card. We also have a matching card available here.
Tim Thornborough is the founder and Publishing Director of The Good Book Company. He is series editor of Explore Bible-reading notes, the author of The Very Best Bible Stories series, and has contributed to many books published by The Good Book Company and others. Tim is married to Kathy and has three adult daughters.