Seriously, how in the world do Christmas lights get so tangled up? I know for certain that when I took the lights down last year that I did not just jumble and stuff them into the box. I did my best to carefully, neatly coil them in such a way that I should have been able to free each string and easily lift them out.
But what happens in the tote while they hibernate in the attic all year long is a mystery. Somehow they entangle themselves like a, well, like a string of Christmas lights. I can almost hear them laughing as I try in frustration to separate them.
I shared a little of this experience with the church on Sunday. That evening Sally Sutton brought me a comic she clipped from the newspaper that described the situation. There’s a billboard in a family’s front yard that reads: “World’s Largest Knotted Ball of Christmas Lights.” An arrow points to a perfectly tangled, huge mess of lights. A family poses for a photo in front of the ball. Traffic is backed up to see it. A guy, who I assume to be the homeowner, stands perturbed in front of the billboard. He kind of looks like me.
Like I said, it’s a mystery.
Part of the wonder of Christmas is the mystery of it all. How does a virgin conceive a child? How does the angel Gabriel make a visit to Mary? How does Joseph keep getting angelic messages in dreams? How are the wise men guided by the star? How do reindeer really know how to fly? And how is it that any item of clothing I buy for my wife at Christmas never fits right?
And here’s something to think about. How are all of the ancient prophecies concerning the Messiah fulfilled in one birth, in one person?
Some 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the prophet Micah foretold the location of the Savior’s birth (Micah 5:2). Isaiah spoke of the virgin birth, and that He would be heir to David’s throne (Isa. 7:14, 9:7). Hosea prophesied that God would call His Son out of Egypt (Hos. 11:1).
Later, Jeremiah foretold of Herod’s murderous rage against the babies in the region of Bethlehem (Jer. 31:15). Going further back, the patriarch Jacob referred to the coming Messiah saying that He would descend from the tribe of Judah. (Gen. 49:10).
All of these things and more were fulfilled when Jesus was born. Coincidence?
In his book, More Than a Carpenter, Josh McDowell observes that the Old Testament records for us over 300 references to the coming of the Messiah. All these prophecies were made at least 400 years before His birth. Using the science of probability, McDowell figures the chances of even just 48 of these prophecies being fulfilled in one person is 10 to the 157th power. That’s an unfathomable number, unless you’re a super math geek, and then it’s even bigger.
The point is that the coming of Jesus as the Messiah is the fulfillment of ancient prophecy and the revelation of divine mystery. What had long been hidden is now made known, “so that all nations might believe and obey Him” (Rom. 16:26).
His life on earth, His sacrificial death on the cross for the forgiveness of sin and His resurrection from the grave all prove Him to be the one and only Savior. And His promise to come again will also be fulfilled without fail.
Friend, you can absolutely trust the Word of God. You can absolutely rely on the promises God makes. Be assured, dear believer, the best is yet to come. But be warned, ye disobedient, that the worst is also yet to come.
I may never figure out why my lights get so tangled. But you can let the truth of Scripture unravel far greater mysteries this Christmas.
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