Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Luciano Pavarotti, and Christmas carol services all have something in common. They have all sent a tingle down the spine singing 'O holy night'. It's a great tune with great words, but what was so 'holy' about that first, unforgettable Christmas night?
It was holy because it was the night that heaven came to earth. The God who made all things entered our world as a tiny baby. The world did not begin with a Big Bang. (Are we really to believe that 100 million galaxies each with 100 million stars came into existence when nothingness exploded?!)
Yet the Creator of all things stooped to become like us, his creation. God was big enough to become small. The world that had rebelled against him became his dwelling place. God had not washed his hands of the world. Heaven came to earth. It was a holy night because God was making a way for men and women on earth to one day be with him in heaven.
When Jesus was born, our world was just as it is today in terms of violence, drunkenness, lust, unfaithfulness, greed, and selfishness. There was pain and sadness. In those days and ours, people had turned their backs on God, living as if he were dead or uninterested. That is sin, and it cuts us off from God, would keep us out of heaven, and would condemn us to hell.
Jesus, whose name means Saviour, came to save us from that. He loves us enough to have come to earth to rescue us. He is God entering our world so that he might reconcile men and women to himself. It was a holy night because the wooden crib where Jesus lay was but a step to the wooden cross where Jesus suffered.
Jesus was born to die. On the cross Jesus took upon himself our wrongs and all the penalty for them. Such was God's love toward us that he carried upon himself everything that has spoiled the world and us, dying that we might be forgiven.
On that holy night, angels announced to shepherds on Bethlehem's hills that they brought 'good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord'.
Did they know that one day that baby would grow to be crucified and buried, then three days later rise from the dead? It was the only way he could be the Saviour of the world.
Today, are you willing to turn from all that is wrong in your life and thank Jesus for coming to earth to die for you, and then ask the risen, living Jesus to become your Lord and Saviour as you start to follow him? It would become a holy night, or day, for you. It would be the moment you were born for when you enter a relationship with God that will last forever.
