Advent Thoughts: It's True

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us."

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25


Eight little verses in Matthew open a new chapter in the most fantastic story ever told. Nearly 28,000 verses of back-story in the prelude of the Old Testament, all leading to the first bodily appearance by our Hero... who arrives as a squirming, red-faced baby boy. Who was born of a virgin. Who, along with her husband-to-be, was told about all this in a dream and visitation by an angel. And did you catch the part where the baby was to be the savior of the world, God-incarnate?

It's fantastic. It's so crazy. It's more out-there than the plotline of anything we have ever come up with. Any book, any movie, any other story: there's those and then there's This.

C. S. Lewis, in describing some of how he came to believe that Christ was the Son of God, wrote that he eventually realized that "the story of Christ is simply a true myth: a myth working on us in the same way as the others, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened: and one must be content to accept it in the same way."

He understood that the human race is a people of stories and storytelling. It's our tradition that really and truly sets us apart from the rest of nature. We love stories and we allow them daily to affect us. We cry at movies, we connect with song lyrics, we are inspired by characters in books and their quests and we name our children after them. Lewis came to understand that we shouldn't turn off that part of ourselves when it comes to facing the story of Jesus.

So fall in love with this magical, fantastic story, embracing everything it means. And then, go one step further. See the one "tremendous difference" from all other myths out there.

It's true. Utterly, mercifully, graciously, wonderfully true. Read it again. It's true.