The winter solstice and the perfect timing of God
This Wall Street Journal headline caught my eye: “It Pays to Have Long Hair and a Beard in Utah—Jesus Models Are in Demand.” People in the state are employing people who “look like Jesus” for family portraits, Christmas cards, and wedding announcements.
One model was posing for photos when a woman asked if he could walk with her for a moment and hold her hand. “You know I’m not the real Jesus, right?” he asked her. She told him she had been looking for a sign from God when she was driving by.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the child who was afraid to sleep alone on a dark, stormy night. His mother assured him that God was right beside him. The boy replied, “But Mom, I want God with skin on!”
So do we all.
“The same yesterday and today and forever”
To everyone who reads this article, the idea that the child who was born in Bethlehem’s manger is still alive and acting in our world is so commonplace that we assume this is how religion works. But it’s not so.
No Buddhist thinks Buddha is still teaching his followers today. No Muslim thinks the Prophet Muhammad is still alive in our world or that they can experience his presence. No Jew thinks the rabbis of old are still available to offer their wisdom.
But every Christian thinks (or should think) that Jesus is just as alive and active today as he was on that first Christmas night. We believe that we can experience the Baby of Bethlehem as fully today as when he first entered our world.
He promised to be with us always (Matthew 28:20). He spoke to Paul on the road to Damascus and to John on the prison island of Patmos. What Jesus did then, he can and will do today, since he is “the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
Why is this fact so relevant to our lives and current challenges?
My visit to Stonehenge
I will always remember my visit to Stonehenge some years ago. While it was stunning to see in person a site whose construction began more than five millennia ago, it would have been especially memorable to have been there last weekend to mark the winter solstice.
This prehistoric structure frames the rise of the sun on the summer solstice and its setting on the winter solstice. Knowing when the seasons were changing would have been vital for farmers and animal herders, so marking this yearly cycle may be one reason Stonehenge was constructed.
So, what is the winter solstice we just experienced?
The axis of our planet tilts 23.5 degrees. As a result, during Earth’s year-long solar rotation, the northern hemisphere will eventually be at its furthest point from the sun. This occurred Saturday at 4:21 a.m. ET, making December 21 our shortest day and longest night. In six months, our planet will be on the opposite side of our solar rotation, at which time our hemisphere will be closest to the sun, giving us our longest day and shortest night.
If our planet had no tilt, we would have no seasons. Why would this be so catastrophic?
Scientists tell us that on such a planet, the regions further to the north and south would be too cold to be habitable, so humans would have to congregate near the equator. In the tropical regions, however, unrelenting rainfall would erode soil in areas cleared for farming, rendering tilled land infertile for crops. In arid regions, life would be even more difficult to sustain.
Our existence would be threatened by disease pathogens that thrive in warm, humid environments. As it is, winter protects us from what one expert called “a long, nasty list of tropical diseases of humans, crops, and livestock.”
If our planet’s tilt was more or less, our seasons would be drastically changed, disrupting if not preventing life as we know it. And so, our planet’s exact tilt is just one example of the anthropic principle, the fact that our existence depends on very precise parameters. Other examples include our atmosphere, our magnetic field, our location in the solar system, our solar system’s place in the galaxy, and even the color of our sun.
“When the fullness of time had come”
Last Friday we discussed the surprising manner of Jesus’ coming. Today, let’s think about its timing. Here we discover that the anthropic principle applies to Christmas as well.
Jesus came to earth to die for our sins (Romans 5:8). However, since God is not bound by time, Jesus’ death could atone for all of humanity’s sins whenever he died and whenever the sins occurred. Why, then, did he come when he did?
Paul reported, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son” (Galatians 4:4). In the era when Jesus was born, Roman roads facilitated the later expansion of the church across the Empire. Greek was so universal that Christian leaders and the New Testament books they produced could be understood by multiplied millions. The Pax Romana ensured a peace that enabled missionaries to spread the faith. A universal hunger for truth and meaning opened the way for the good news of God’s love.
Never before or since were conditions so perfect for a faith to take root and grow to universal significance.
When you’re waiting on God
A God who can make a planet that tilts at just the right angle to support life is a God whose power you can trust with your needs. And a God who can enter the planet he created at just the right time is a God whose timing you can trust as well.
Are you waiting for God to answer your prayers? Does it seem that he is slow to do what you need him to do? Then ask yourself these questions:
- Do you believe your Father is all-knowing? Then he must know what is best for you.
- Do you believe he is all-loving? Then he must want to do what is best for you.
- Do you believe he is all-powerful? Then he must be able to do what is best for you.
If his timing is not yours, it must be the case that his timing is better than yours. We are therefore wise to accept his invitation:
“Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Galatians 6:9).
The reason is simple: It is always too soon to give up on God.
Always.
Monday news to know:
*Denison Forum does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in these stories.
Quote for the day:
“We shall not grow weary of waiting upon God if we remember how long and how graciously he once waited for us.” —Charles Spurgeon
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