Year after year, every December I turn to many wonderful recollections as a child. I enjoy seeing the hundreds of “Kodak moments” associated with Christmas which are etched upon my mind. Truly, a special time of year.
Invariably, too, thoughts about that first noel occupy my heart. And nearly every year I turn to a favorite author, Frederick Buechner. Many years ago a friend gave me a devotional by this good writer. “
Listening To Your Life” is a compilation of Buechner’s works, broken into bite-size pieces for daily consumption and enjoyment. He is a thoughtful writer, and one who prompts many thoughts and leaves a good taste in one’s mouth.
Here’s part of the entry for December 26, showing what Buechner about the birth of Christ:
…a great many biblical scholars would agree with the skeptics that the great nativity stories of Luke and Matthew are simply the legendary accretions, the poetry of a later generation, and that were we to have been present, we would have seen a birth no or less marvelous than any other birth.
But if that is the case what do we do with the legends of the wise men and the star, the shepherds and the angels and the great hymn of joy that the angels sang? Do we dismiss them as fairy tales, the subject for pageants to sentimentalize over once a year come Christmas, the lovely dream that never came true? Only if we are fools do we do that, although there are many in our age who have done it and there are moments of darkness when each one of us is tempted to do it. A lovely dream. That is all.
Who knows what the facts of Jesus’ birth actually were? As for myself, the longer I live, the more inclined I am to believe in miracle, the more I suspect that if we had been there at the birth, we might well have seen and heard things that would be hard to reconcile with modern science. But of course, that is not the point, because the Gospel writers are not concerned primarily in the facts of the birth but in the significance, the meaning for them of that birth, just as the people who love us are not really interested primarily in the facts of our birth but in what it meant to them when we were born and how for them the world was never the same again, how their lives were changed with new significance. Whether there were ten million angels there or just the woman herself and her husband, when the child was born, the whole course of history was changed. That is a fact as hard and blunt as any fact. Art, music, literature, our culture itself, our political institutions, our whole understanding of ourselves and our world – it is impossible to conceive of how differently world history would have developed if that child had not been born.
I believe in the biblical account of Jesus’ birth and the details presented to us details recorded by Matthew and Luke. They gave us a glimpse into what transpired two thousand years ago, and how the Messiah entered into this world.
Having said that, here’s why I like Buechner’s emphasis on the meaning of Christ’s birth: there is an inescapable conclusion one reaches about Jesus’ humble beginning, and to the life he lived on earth. And that is this: He left an indelible mark on everything. On everyone. Believe Him or not, He changed the world. Even skeptics acknowledge this every Christmas season when they call upon the world to peace, to give generously, to practice love.
This was Christ’s message. This was His life, His death, His resurrection.
The force of Buechner's words bear repeating: "...when the child was born, the whole course of history was changed. That is a fact as hard and blunt as any fact..."
It was real. More than a dream. He was - is - a world-changer. How has He changed your life?
