History Changed When God Came Near
Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means, “God with us.”
Matthew 1:23
We’ve all watched movies where time slows down or even stops at a critical moment in the action. The hero descends on the enemy and the battle strokes are slow and firm. The lovers finally kiss and everything stops for a moment, as if to affirm the higher reality of that brief contact.
Educational institutions, such as Palm Beach Atlantic University, have their own version of this timeout. The fall semester tends to be a downhill sprint. By the time we arrive at Thanksgiving, assignments and tests are coming due with an almost hourly intensity. Exam week is a sleepless crush of studying for students, grading for faculty, and data processing from the registrar’s office. December commencement adds another crescendo of events and stress. Finally, the Christmas holidays arrive only to be filled with gift shopping, housecleaning, and the desperate gasp for even a moment in which to remember the actual reason for the season. But then Christmas arrives and we can breath. And worship.
In the Christian era, we divide the dating system around the coming of the Christ Child. BC: “Before Christ.” AD: “Anno Domini” (“in the year of Our Lord”). The more politically correct system now used commonly is BCE (“before the Common Era”) and CE (“the common era”), which are really just circumlocutions for the same thing. Whatever the actual day was, whatever the actual year was, something happened. Something changed. The doors of history turned on a hinge and a child was born.
The conception was miraculous, of course. The life was extraordinary. The death of the child, grown now into a man we know as Jesus, was painful. But the miracle of the resurrection bookended that miraculous conception. God came near to Mary, and the seed of the woman somehow produced a Son. God came near again, as the laws of nature were transcended by the One who created them, and Death was overcome in the Resurrection. The Incarnation and the Resurrection are two sides of the same miracle: God came near. In the fullness of time, God came near. Into our lives, God came near. And by “near” I do not mean “close-but-no-cigar” near, I mean wrapping-around-us-with-loving-arms near. I mean holding-us-in-tragedy near. I mean loving-us-when-we-are-unlovable near. Immanuel (“God is with us”) near.
In those movies, we know that the time didn’t stop or slow down. It’s a convention. When Jesus was born in that stable, time didn’t stop or slow down. But time was changed because the One who made time itself came and brought with Him a love that fulfills all that was God’s plan for the universe: that He would be made known and that His people would be able to enjoy a relationship with Him forever.
As we celebrate, pause — stop time for a bit in your own mind and heart — and give thanks for the One who has changed everything. For the greatest gift ever offered: Christ the Lord.
– Dr. Gene Fant
Provost and Chief Academic Officer, Palm Beach Atlantic University