The Wonder of Christmas

On Christmas Eve 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts James Lovell, Frank Borman and William Anders entered lunar orbit. They became the first humans to see the dark side of the moon, circling 10 times. Perhaps, the most poignant moment of the historic occasion happened when the astronauts decided to end their broadcast by reading from the creation account of Genesis. Later Frank Borman said of that Christmas Eve, “I was awestruck. With my thumb I could cover up the whole planet earth. I thought ‘This must be what God sees.’”[1]  Millions of people across the world watched, and the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever.

Fast forward less than one year to July 20, 1969. The Apollo 11 mission would put the first humans, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Adrian, on the lunar surface. By now the whole world was utterly fascinated. Experts say that over 600 million people around the globe (1/5 of world population) watched Armstrong take his “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” In the United States, 94 percent of people watching television were tuned into the event. Even CBS news anchor Walter Cronkite, who was usually cool and composed, was momentarily at a loss of words.[2]  

            But something funny happened, soon after the success of Apollo 11 people quit caring about the space program. Remember the old saying, “familiarity breeds contempt.” In the years that followed the public simply lost interest in going to the moon.  Surveys in newspapers such as the New York Times and the Philadelphia Sunday Bulletin found that the majority of Americans could not remember Neil Armstrong’s name just a year later.[3] By the time of the last moon mission, Apollo 17 in 1972, few people watched or even knew that it was happening. Chris Kraft, NASA’s first mission control flight director said, “The blush fell off the rose after Apollo 11. In the minds of many the mission was over. We had been there and done that.”[4]

It’s human nature for our interest to fade once the novelty wears off. After a while, we can easily become bored with something, even when it’s as amazing as putting a man on the moon.

Do you find the same thing happens with Christmas? As you grow older the tree doesn’t glow as bright, the presents aren’t as exciting, and the anticipation of Christmas morning gets lost in the hustle and bustle. Many adults have heard the Christmas story so many times in the sermons, carols and pageants that the wonder of God becoming man has become ho-hum.

Ravi Zacharias observed, “Our souls yearn for a wonder that reaches beyond the dimensions of our finite minds, and if we don’t allow a wonder towards God, we’ll search for it elsewhere, in false gods . . . The older you get the more it takes to fill your heart with wonder and only God is big enough to do that.”[5]

Are you having trouble rekindling that child-like wonder this Christmas? Let me suggest at least four areas of Christmas, that in my estimation, will always stir up amazement in our hearts.

First, there is the wonder of Scripture. The birth of Christ fulfilled many ancient prophecies; 19 to be exact.[6] Not only does fulfilled prophecy prove that the Bible is uniquely inspired, but it authenticates Jesus as the long-awaited Messiah. Several of these prophecies stagger the mind when you consider that they could only be fulfilled by God entering our time and space. For example, how could you accomplish a virgin conception (Is. 7:14)? How could you arrange circumstances so that you are born in a particular town—Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)? Moreover, how could you plan to be born in a very narrow window of time (Dan. 9:24-27)?    

Second, there is the wonder of the star. Remember the lyrics to the classic carol, “We Three Kings?” “Star of wonder, star of night / Star with royal beauty bright / Westward leading, still proceeding / Guide us to thy Perfect Light.” Astronomers and Bible scholars have wondered exactly what the celestial body was that led the wise men to the Christ child (Matt. 2:9). Some have speculated that it was a comet, others have said it was a conjunction of constellations, while some have said that it was the shekinah glory of God. Whatever it was, the lesson of the star is that God uses creative and beautiful ways to draw all men unto Himself.

Third, we must consider the wonder of the shepherds. The shepherds keeping their flocks on quiet, rolling hills of Bethlehem were privy to choirs of angels announcing the birth of Christ (Luke 2:9-14). These weren’t angels in disguise, because the Bible tells us they shined with “the glory of God” (Luke 2:9). We can only imagine how the shepherd’s mouths dropped and their knees buckled with they saw the brilliance of these celestial creatures. We are filled with fascination about angels, but the amazing thing is that according to 1 Peter 1:12, the angels “long to look” into gift of salvation we have been given.      

Finally, there is the wonder of the Savior. Perhaps, Charles Swindoll said it best, “The incarnation is a riddle wrapped in a mystery, stuffed inside an enigma.”[7] There’s nothing in world of fiction as incredible as the truth of God becoming a man. Mary’s heart swelled with awe as she reflected on her miraculous child (Luke 2:19). Isaiah said one Christ’s names would be “wonderful” (Is. 9:6) and Paul wrote, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16). If the incarnation does not engender awe, I don’t know what will. The Creator was in a cradle. The Infinite became an infant. The Messiah lay in the straw of a manger. Deity wore diapers. Christ was is the earthly child of a Heavenly Father and the heavenly child of an earthly mother. As the Ancient of Days, when Jesus was born he was as ageless as His Father and older than His mother. His is the cradle that rocked the world, for when eternity invaded time Christ split our timeline in half and our world has never been the same since. -DM  

---

[1] JESSE GREENSPAN, “Remembering the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast,” History, 17 Dec. 2018

<https://www.history.com/news/remembering-the-apollo-8-christmas-eve-broadcast>

[2] Tiffany Hsu, “The Apollo 11 Mission Was Also a Global Media Sensation,” The New York Times, 15 July 2019

<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/15/business/media/apollo-11-television-media.html>

[3] Franz Strasser & Ashley Semler, “Why Americans lost interest in putting men on the Moon,” BBC, 24 July 2014 <https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-28450386/why-americans-lost-interest-in-putting-men-on-the-moon>

[4] Alex Stucky, “The Other Apollo Missions,” The Houston Chronicle, 18 July 2019 <https://www.houstonchronicle.com/local/space/mission-moon/article/The-other-Apollo-missions-Despite-cutbacks-14097551.php>

[5] Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God? (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1994), 89.

[6] David R. Reagan, “Prophetic Facts about the Nativity,” Lamb & Lion Ministries <https://christinprophecy.org/

articles/prophetic-facts-about-the-nativity/>

[7] Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Ultimate Book of Illustrates, Quotes and Stories (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 1998).