How perspective can warp Christmas …

Human beings tend to live viewing and navigating life from their individual perspectives.

“Perspective” has been a hot buzzword and topic in and out of the church, but it’s not a wise way to live (I’ve written about that before here, here,, here, here, and here).

First, what is perspective? It’s the specific vantage point from which we choose to view and evaluate anything. The problem is perspectives shift and differ, a reality reflected in this snippet from Henry Van Dyke titled, “Beyond the Horizon”:

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength, and I stand and watch until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, “There she goes!”

Gone where?

Gone from my sight … that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and just as able to bear her load of living freight to the place of destination. Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone at my side says, “There she goes!” there are other eyes watching her coming and their voices ready to take up the glad shouts, “Here she comes!”

Even though what the person “sees” regarding the boat changes, the truth is the boat doesn’t change!

Essential to life is learning to look past your own preferred vantage point to the truth.

Why is that so important?

Entertaining your individual vantage point can warp the truth about life, and the result can be calamity (think of Eve shifting her perspective about the forbidden fruit from God’s statement of truth about it to the serpent’s perspective and then the vantage point she would foster, see Genesis 3:1-7).

Have you ever considered how differing vantage points affected some of the people at that first Christmas?

Joseph – was ready to “divorce” his fiancé, Mary. After all, if she was pregnant, she must’ve cheated on him, right? Only through the intervention of an angel, who redirected his vantage point to the truth, would Joseph change his mind and go ahead and marry Mary (Matthew 1:18-24).

Mary – Shocked! How could she possibly be pregnant? That was the question she asked the angel delivering the message of astounding news: “Mary asked the angel, ‘But how can this happen? I am a virgin'” (Luke 1:34). This was going to mess up her life in a big way, but let God’s will be done (“Mary responded, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.’ And then the angel left her,” Luke 1:38).

Shepherds – were in awe and wonder! I mean, heaven was literally busting loose with worship (see Luke 2:8-20). They shepherds couldn’t keep it to themselves, “After seeing him, the shepherds told everyone what had happened and what the angel had said to them about this child,” Luke 2:17, and the experience left them praising God (Luke 2:20).

Magi – compelled to travel a great distance in order to worship the newborn King, “Where is the newborn king of the Jews? We saw his star as it rose, and we have come to worship him,” Matthew 2:2.

Herod (and everyone in Jerusalem) – disturbed. A new king?! That would be a threat to Herod’s throne and the people’s way of life, the very idea was disturbing: “King Herod was deeply disturbed when he heard this, as was everyone in Jerusalem,” Matthew 2:3.

One great event, viewed from different vantage points, resulting in different responses from faith, to awe and wonder, to worship, to murder (Herod having children killed, Matthew 2:16).

But we really don’t land on the truth of Christmas unless we get God’s “perspective,” do we?

God’s perspective — which is unchanging truth — is that humanity had broken their relationship with Him and were separated from Him because of sin. Yet, He loved us and wanted to reconcile us to Him, so the world needed a Savior, one who could redeem humanity from sin so that we could be reconciled to God. So Christmas is God giving to the world the Savior who could reconcile us to back to Him.

If we miss that with any other vantage point about Christmas, we miss Christmas.

In our time, we can see who God’s perspective, which is truth, played out:

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him,” John 3:16-17.

“For, There is one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity — the man Christ Jesus. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone,” 1 Timothy 2:5.

“And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him. For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation,” 2 Corinthians 5:18-19.

That’s what Christmas is about.

What’s your vantage point of Christmas? Is Christmas “all about family”? Is it receiving gifts, or giving gifts? Is it decorations and parties? Is it Santa and “elf on a shelf”?

The vantage point you pick for viewing Christmas determines how you respond to it, and what it means and will be to you. But does your vantage point land you on the truth?

Scotty