By T F L Mawlong
“Mother earth” quakes, and cities burn. Terror and catastrophe shake the world. We are being held hostage to fear, violence, discrimination and poverty among many other negative elements. And the world is on the verge of a moral bankruptcy. In short the world is in peril! Can men save the world? Can laws stop the corrupt practices, violence and the rape culture? Can we save ourselves from the corruptible nature, greed, egocentricity, lovelessness, dishonesty, hypocrisy and the likes? Can medical science catch up with the new and deadlier viruses? Can Paris agreement check the rapid climate change? If we go by the Scripture, ‘human efforts’ to save the world are at best the ‘band-aid efforts’. Man has developed many strategies, methodologies, techniques and tactics for economic security, stability and for achieving peace. But try as he will, man’s efforts can never be good enough. History bears testimony to this.
People say earthquakes, cyclone, flash floods, drought, epidemic, diseases, and poverty for that matter are the acts of God. We are quick to blame God for anything that hurts. But the Scripture says that anything destructive, anything that hurts and anything that break the heart are because of the fallen earth as a result of one man’s disobedience. The first man, Adam lived in perfect happiness in a perfect world; the Eden which knew no destructive nature, no earthquakes, and no berserk weather. Then, before long, Adam was tempted and fell into sin. And because of this one man’s sin, the ‘devil had his way with the world. It is man’s sin that arms the devil to ‘steal’, ‘kill’ and ‘destroy’. But as much as He hates sin, God loves man. God loves man so much, so how shall He destroy sin without destroying man? The answer is “Christmas”.
Love is not love until we give it. And God ‘so loved’ us that He gave His only begotten son for us. Christmas, therefore, is a sign from heaven that we are so much loved. When God sent Jesus, He was effectively saying this to us: “I know that you can’t love Me perfectly, so watch Me now. I will love you with all My heart, all My soul, all My mind and all My strength.” The Son of God enters our darkness for the sole purpose of dying for us at the cross. He came to ‘restore’ all that the devil has stolen. If we look around we can tell that the world we live in needs nothing less than the “gifts of Christmas” – love, joy and peace – to keep up the hope against the schemes of the devil.
Going back to the beginning of time, 13.5 billion years ago, the universe then was a single point mass having zero volume, tinier than a smallest speck of dust that we can see. Our universe comes into being as a result of an explosion of this point mass. Scientists called this explosion, the “Big Bang”. So what exists in this “nothingness” before the Big Bang? What force causes this Big Bang? There is a single answer: God, the All-powerful and the Almighty, Who created the earth and the heavens in great order. This is how the Scripture hints at the Big Bang much before Scientists developed the Big Bang theory: “The universe fled away from the great white throne of God’s presence” (Revelation 20:11).
This knowledge of God’s creation of universe is of great significance. But much more significant is the realization that the same Majestic God who created the universe became a tiny seed in the womb of a young Virgin Mary. Nine months later a child was born. Yes Jesus Christ had to come! He had to have a body, because without a body there is no blood to be shed to wash away our sins.
Since the blood of a “Redeemer” cannot be a sin stained blood. And the blood of every man born of Adam, has been tainted with sin so Jesus must be born of a virgin. Further Medical science has proved beyond any doubt that the baby inside a mother’s womb does not receive even one drop of blood from the mother. The placenta only serves to bring in food and take away waste. So Mary’s sin stained blood is not in baby Jesus. Therefore Jesus is without sin. Thus He who knew no sin, did no sin, in Him there is no sin was born in flesh to become our sin and die at the cross so that we may become the ‘righteousness’ of God. This “gift of righteousness” weakens the force of devil against us. The Son of God came to this world to disarm the devil (readers may refer to Colossian 2: 14-15).
Through Christmas Jesus Christ becomes a Gift and a Giver. While people can accept our gifts and reject us, it is impossible to accept the gifts of Christmas and reject the Giver. The Christmas gift and the Giver are one. The Christmas gifts- love, joy and peace- can only come through the person of Jesus Christ. He is called Immanuel – meaning “God with us”. When the ‘Lord is with us’ we prosper says the Scripture. People may have plenty of money and nations may have impressive economy, but without the gifts of Christmas, people’s hearts remain poor, nations remain reeling with various socio-economic problems, all kinds of insecurities prevail in the world, societies stay rife with hatred, hypocrisy, lovelessness and suffering to name but a few, and the devil who comes to inflict death, continues his killing spree.
The peace that God gives us through Christmas is what is called “shalom” in Hebrew. This “shalom” includes “peace” but it means much more. “Shalom” means completeness, safety, soundness (in body), welfare, health, prosperity, peace, quiet, tranquillity, contentment, peace used of human relationships, peace with God and peace from war. Many diseases today are caused by the lack of peace. In fact Medical science says that about 70% of diseases today are the result of stress. If a patient has high blood pressure, doctors can advise the patient to cut down on sodium, sugar or cholesterol. But what medical doctors cannot control is their patients’ stress levels. By the way peace as the world understands it is temporal. It dissipates into thin air once, say, the musical evening ends, or external surrounding changes, or meditation ends. But the peace (shalom) that is gifted through Christmas is a peace that lasts; it is a peace even in the midst of a storm and is not affected by the external surroundings.
At this point I would like to quote Einstein’s most profound thought on the mystery of the mind: “The human mind, no matter how highly trained, cannot grasp the universe. We are in the position of a little child, entering a huge library whose walls are covered to the ceiling with books in many different tongues. The child knows that someone must have written those books. It does not know who or how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child notes a definite plan in the arrangement of the books, a mysterious order, which it cannot comprehend, but it dimly suspects. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of the human mind, even in the greatest and most cultured, towards God. We see a universe marvellously arranged, obeying certain laws, but we understand the laws only dimly. Our limited minds cannot grasp the mysterious force that sways the constellations.”
To me, this “mysterious force” which is governing the universe is “Love”. And there is no love like the “Love that Christmas gifted us”. This love is after all the basic building block of life. In fact the Scripture in Colossian 1: 16-17 says, “For by Him (Jesus) all things were created…. and in Him (Jesus) all things ‘hold together’.” This love is a love that is so transcendental that it can most definitely be a cure for societies of the world today which are plaguing with sickening hatred, hypocrisy, terror and fear psychosis. The awesomeness of Christmas gifts is beyond any comparison! Merry Christmas dear readers!
(The writer is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and can be reached at [email protected])