Christmas, condensed

Christmas, we were reminded at the musical this past weekend, can be condensed into four words:

God is with us.

I think we’re more accustomed to the diluted versions. Those versions that start with the basic observation of Christmas, then water it down with a lot of tradition and required atmosphere and general hyperactive hoopla.

But there’s something simple and powerful about a condensed Christmas. Really, it’s a version that should blow our minds, if you think about it. It should nearly short-circuit our mental wiring to realize the truth of Christmas: Emmanuel, God with us.

Why is the condensed version so wonderful? Because now there need be no separation between us and the God who made us. No no-man’s land. In fact, there are no alone places in our lives. We never have to experience anything on our own. We’re never left to our own devices. In no situation are we powerless. He softens bad news with the reassurance that it is not the final word, that someday He will make all things new. He’s there to confront the nagging past, to calm future worries, and to liven the dull present… because how dull can a moment be when infinity and omnipotence and irrepressible hope and joy are right there with us?

But I think most of us live our lives in a sort of a brown-out. We need the truth of God-with-us to surge through in its full-strength reality, and overload a few systems: The system of doubt and suspicion with which we regard God. The system of weight and worry through which we process our lives. The system of cynicism and despair with which we face our futures. The system of self-protection behind which we live our days.

God-with-us races along the old, decrepit wiring of those false systems, and POP! FLASH! – they’re left smoldering… until somehow the connection with worry is broken. Self-protection has been bypassed. We’re unable to contact despair. Something – Someone – has taken over the power grid, and the lines are humming with hope and we feel more alive than we ever have before.

Alive with the indescribable wonder of Emmanuel, God with us.