The Night the World Changed

Right now, "I Celebrate the Day" by Relient K should be playing on your computer. I hope you listen to it. But in case you, like me, have a computer that has malfunctioning sound, I'll put the words of this song here:

And with this Christmas wish is missed
The point I could convey
If only I could find the words to say
To let you know how much you've touched my life
Because here is where you're finding me
In the exact same place as New Year's Eve
And from the lack of my persistency
We're less than half as close as I want to be

And the first time that you opened your eyes
Did you realize that you would be my Savior?
And the first breath that left your lips
Did you know that it would change this world forever?

And so this Christmas I'll compare
The things I've felt in prior years
To what this midnight made so clear
That you have come to meet me here

To look back, and think that
This baby would one day save me
In that hope that what you did
That you were born so I might really live
To look back, and think that this baby would one day save me

And I, I celebrate the day
That you were born to die
So I could one day pray for you to save my life

I absolutely love this song. It states so simply, yet so beautifully, what Christmas is all about. At Christmastime, we get so wrapped up with all kinds of things, like presents, travel, ham, family, gingerbread houses, TV specials, lights, and on and on and on. And most of those things aren't at all bad in themselves. But that's not what Christmas is. Christmas is all focused on Jesus. And so, as Christians, we keep Jesus in Christmas by singing "Happy Birthday Jesus" or by going to church on Christmas Eve and reading the nativity story. And then we got on with the rest of our holiday.

I don't think that we really understand just how huge the Jesus-event is. Everything from his birth to life and ministry to death and resurrection. It's what the world is all about. It is THE point of everything. And we forget this, not just on Christmas, but all the time. Every day, I spend so much time, energy, and thought on classes and sports and girls and bum knees and all kinds of other things. And I think THAT'S all what life is about. But that's not even close. I wig out about all these little things, all the while neglecting the big thing.

It's an incredible thought. All of history, all of existence, comes down to Jesus. The entire universe centered around God enfleshed, lying in a manger in a tiny village. And it changed the world forever. That baby died for me and lives in me, and I will live with him forever. That's the bottom line of the story. That's what it's all about. That's what everything's about. All this other nonsense that eats up my attention fades when compared to Christ.

Merry Christmas. I hope you all get everything that you want, and that you have a great day with family and friends. But I especially hope that you remember Christ, not just today, but all the time. Celebrate the day every day.