Behind the Scenes at Christmas

Almost everyone I know has seen a Christmas pageant. Most people I know have even been in one.

Because of this we really do get a good picture of the events of Christmas. After all, we know about the wise men (even if there is no mention of three as the number), the shepherds, Joseph and Mary, and the manger. We are well versed about the star and about Herod the Great.

Every Christmas, I try to read the Christmas story as found in Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2. This gives us a comprehensive picture of Joseph and Mary and the events of Christmas.

What we really don’t get is what was going on behind the scenes of the Christmas story.

To get that story you have to look a little deeper.

What was going on behind the scenes? John 1, Philippians 2:1-12, and Galatians 4 help us to understand the larger story of Christmas–the story of God’s redemption of lost and hurting mankind.

Behind the scenes we see the love of the Eternal God for His rebellious world. At the right time in history (“the fullness of time”), God sent forth His Son, born of woman (Galatians 4:4). This Son is the Eternal God. He was in the beginning with God, and He was God. “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).

The Godhead–the Father, Son, and Spirit–loved the world and sent the second person of the Godhead (the Son of God) into the world to redeem the world. He did not enter the world to condemn the world, but to save the world (John 3:17).

All of this was done deliberately. This choice was made before the foundation of the world.

God the Father sent God the Son to die for lost mankind. He did this to make us free and to bring us life, real life. His coming into the world to die makes life possible. It makes us a new creation. In Him the old has passed away and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Coringthians 5:21).

Max Lucado gave an enduring picture of the love of God. It is only a picture, but it helps humans understand what happened. God the Father is standing at the threshold of heaven, waving good-bye to the Son. The Son is voluntarily leaving heaven to become human flesh and to die for the sin of the world (Philippians 2:5).

Behind the scenes is the love of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit for a world lost, hurting, confused, and afraid.

It is the greatest event in history–the Christ event.

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