“And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.” Luke 1:31-33

It’s always good at Christmas to try to find a new take on its story. In what now can only be called a secular world, it’ll get tossed out there to give something done to celebrate Christmas some ancient context and a tiny bit of the “spiritual.” Then pass the glitter, fire up the band, bring out the dancers, and get the party started.

What happened that day was the beginning of that which has no end. After thousands of years, the Son of God would be dispatched to earth to fix things, and then to set up shop. It’s far more complicated than that, but what fascinates me is that the time had finally come to issue orders to Gabriel to visit a lowly teenaged virgin in the obscure town of Nazareth. The rest is and will be history.

As I write this we await another order from God, this time to his Son, to gather up his saints, dead and alive from the earth. Just as indeed the teenaged girl conceived as foretold and gave birth to our Savior, in an instant we’ll be in the presence of God, only to take part a short time thereafter in Jesus’ triumphant return to assume the throne of David forever.

Whereas Mary was visited by an angel with the news, I have in my hand the word of God which clearly tells me right now the “end” of the Christmas story, and it’s worth the wait.