God saw the end of Christmas from the beginning …

Wouldn’t it turn your life upside down if you could see the end of something before you started?

We can’t.

The fireman jumps into his gear and into the truck, not always knowing what he’ll discover at a scene … a raging fire? A car accident? A cat in a tree?

When a policeman turns on the siren and speeds toward a robbery, he doesn’t know if he’ll finish by arresting a robber, be wounded in a shootout, or arrive after the criminal is long gone.

A doctor suspects something, orders a battery of tests, and hopes he doesn’t find a worst case scenario.

Most of what we start we begin without knowing exactly what the outcome will be.

That’s wasn’t the case for God on that first Christmas.

He saw the plight of humanity, steeped in and enslaved by sin, so by having Jesus born into this world, God knew precisely what the end would be from the beginning:

“Only I can tell you the future before it even happens. Everything I plan will come to pass, for I do whatever I wish,” Isaiah 46:10.

In the case of Christmas, God saw the end from the beginning, so He had Jesus born into the world so He would have a human body to sacrifice on our behalf. The writer of Hebrews describes it this way:

“For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time,” Hebrews 10:10.

That would certainly resolve humanity’s issue with sin! Of course, God knew that from the beginning:

“Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure,” Ephesians 1:4-5.

Of course, others couldn’t see Christmas like God did.

Herod certainly didn’t!

He feared the arrival of a baby would threaten his grasp on his meager earthly throne, so he sent his soldiers on a murderous rampage (see Matthew 2:1-18).

Some 30ish years later, not even Jesus’ disciples could put it together. Their view of God sending a Messiah was a man who would use political and military might to free Israel from its servitude to Rome. Even as Jesus was about to ascend back to heaven, his disciples were expecting the “end” (or outcome) of God providing a Messiah was still going to be the deliverance of Israel:

“So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, ‘Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?'” Acts 1:6.

Before the Holy Spirit would work the miracle of making a virgin pregnant, God knew what the end would be of the Son He sent that first Christmas night.

And so do we.

We get to see what God always knew, and what we see, as told from the pages of scripture, is why we celebrate Christmas with great joy.

Scotty