Santa Claus delivered 7,883,693,263 gifts around the world yesterday, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which has been tracking his movements each year since 1955. But Christmas isn’t over in Rovaniemi, Finland, where the holiday is celebrated 365 days a year and you can visit Mrs. Claus any time you wish. Towns in Iceland, Alaska, Norway, Sweden, Michigan, and Canada similarly participate in Christmas all year long.

Things were far different in the home of the first Christmas, where streets in Bethlehem were deserted and stores were shuttered after churches canceled celebrations due to the war between Hamas and Israel. Presiding at Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis said, “Tonight, our hearts are in Bethlehem, where the Prince of Peace is once more rejected by the futile logic of war, by the clash of arms that even today prevents him from finding room in the world.”

The most notable Christmas decoration in Bethlehem was a large Nativity scene in ruins, with shepherds climbing piles of rubble and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph huddled in the midst of destruction.

While I understand the pope’s sentiment, I think the Nativity scene in Bethlehem is more correct. Nothing humans do can prevent Jesus from “finding room in the world.” To the contrary, he is just as present on this day after Christmas as he was on that first Christmas two millennia ago.

Even more so, in fact, in ways that are deeply hopeful and urgent for our world and our souls.

Crossing the Delaware, changing the world

George Washington, along with 2,400 soldiers, successfully crossed the icy and freezing Delaware River on Christmas Day in 1776. The next morning, he won the first major US victory in the War for Independence.

Many believe Christmas is still relevant in the same way—an historic event we remember with gratitude for the One who was born into our world to die for our sins. St. Augustine asked, “What greater grace could God have made to dawn on us than to make his only Son become the son of man, so that a son of man might in his turn become a son of God?”

Others who do not recognize the saving purpose of Christmas nonetheless might seek spiritual lessons in its story. They see it as a religious tradition or myth which, as psychologist Carl Jung suggested, “channels some great truth beyond itself.” And still others celebrate Christmas for its secular traditions that bring them together as families and friends.

Whether you see yesterday’s celebration as a holy day or a holiday, if you’re like most people, when the decorations go back into their boxes over the next few days and we return to the “real world,” Christmas will be over.

How can we do “greater works” than Jesus?

But consider this: When you made Christ your Lord, the Holy Spirit of God came to live in your body just as fully as Jesus came to live in his earthly body (1 Corinthians 3:16). Now Jesus is continuing his earthly life and ministry through you:

• As he was born in Bethlehem, you were “born again” at your salvation (John 3:3). Now “Christ [is] in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).
• As he prayed to his Father when he was on earth, now his Spirit prays through us (Romans 8:26).
• As he healed bodies through his hands, he heals now through ours (cf. Acts 3:7).
• As he preached the gospel, now he sends us to preach the gospel (1 Corinthians 1:17).
• As he returned to heaven, he will one day take us to heaven (John 14:3).
• As he will return to our planet one day (Acts 1:11), so “the dead in Christ will rise first” (1 Thessalonians 4:16) and “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air” (v. 17).
• In the meantime, as Jesus was present with his first followers, so he is present with us “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).

In short, you and I are literally “the body of Christ” continuing Jesus’ ministry as his hands and feet in our world (1 Corinthians 12:27).

But there’s even more: Jesus promised that after he returned to his Father, we would do “greater works” than he did (John 14:12). He did not mean “greater” in power but in extent—he was limited to a single body when he walked on our planet, but today he is living in billions of Christians around the globe.

Imagine a world in which every Christian thought with the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16), spoke with the wisdom of Christ (Colossians 2:3), lived with the character of Christ (Romans 8:29), and loved with the compassion of Christ (John 13:14–15).

This is the world Jesus wants to create through you and me today.

“God manifest in the flesh”

In his Christmas Day meditation, Oswald Chambers observed:

The characteristic of the new birth is that I yield myself so completely to God that Christ is formed in me. Immediately Christ is formed in me, his nature begins to work through me. God manifest in the flesh—that is what is made profoundly possible for you and me by the Redemption.

Will you “yield yourself so completely to God that Christ is formed” in you? Every day you do, Christmas comes again.

And our world can never be the same.

Denison Forum

It’s been a season of improbable quarterback stories in the NFL. Drew Lock led the Seahawks to a last-minute game-winning drive over the Eagles Monday night after losing the starting job last year and playing sparingly this season. Tommy DeVito, undrafted out of college, has become the starter for the Giants and generated headlines after he “classily handled” a free appearance at a New Jersey restaurant Tuesday.

But the story of stories has to be Brock Purdy, the last pick in the 2022 NFL draft (for which he was dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant”). He is playing so well for the 49ers that, according to the Wall Street Journal,  many consider him the frontrunner to win league MVP this year.

However, I’m leading today’s Daily Article with him because of who he is, not what he’s doing. Before the season began, he told a reporter, “God has me where he needs me.” He testifies clearly, “The bottom line, my identity is in Jesus.”

If more Americans had the same “bottom line,” our democracy would be secured and empowered in paradoxical ways we urgently need to embrace today.

A republic “if you can keep it”

The Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling that bars former President Trump from the state’s 2024 primary ballot continues to reverberate this morning. In my Daily Article Special Edition response yesterday, I noted that divisive partisan reactions to this issue spotlight the deep level of distrust many have for our democracy, our institutions, and our leaders.

For cultural context, let’s note with Joseph Nye, former Dean of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, that American exceptionalism has stemmed from three factors: our geopolitical size, location, and resources; our commitment to humanity’s quest for freedom; and our moral virtues.

Today, however, the world is smaller than ever, as Houthi rebels in Yemen demonstrated yesterday by threatening to strike US warships if the Iranian-backed militia is targeted by Washington. Humanity’s quest for freedom seems less global or attractive in a world increasingly dominated by autocratic regimes in China, Russia, and elsewhere. And postmodern relativism has redefined morality as personal and subjective while castigating those who defend biblical morality as intolerant and dangerous.

Unsurprisingly, when the Wall Street Journal asked Americans, “Do you think the American Dream—that if you work hard you’ll get ahead—still holds true,” just 36 percent said it does. Eighteen percent said it never did; 45 percent said it “once held true but not anymore.”

According to James McHenry, a Maryland delegate to the 1787 Constitutional Convention, “A lady asked Dr. [Benjamin] Franklin Well Doctor what have we got a republic or a monarchy. A republic replied the Doctor if you can keep it.”

How do we “keep it”?

“We must live through all time, or die by suicide”

On January 27, 1838, Abraham Lincoln offered an address to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois, on “the perpetuation of our political institutions.” He was twenty-eight years old at the time.

He began by referencing the same three advantages Dr. Nye catalogued: “the fairest portion of the earth,” a government conducted “to the ends of civil and religious liberty,” and “hardy, brave, and patriotic” virtues received from our forefathers.

Lincoln then asked, “At what point should we expect the approach of danger?” After discounting enemies from abroad, he answered: “If it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

Accordingly, he summoned Americans to “general intelligence, sound morality, and in particular, a reverence for the constitution and laws.” Lincoln then concluded his remarks: “Upon these let the proud fabric of freedom rest, as the rock of its basis; and as truly as has been said of the only greater institution, ‘The gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’”

“The joy of the Lᴏʀᴅ is your strength”

The best way for America to rebuild such moral and spiritual foundations is for Americans to build our lives on the lordship of Christ and the authority of his word.

Jesus promised that when we hear and obey his teachings, we are “like a wise man who built his house on the rock” (Matthew 7:24). When the storms came, his house did not fall “because it had been founded on the rock” (v. 25). If, however, we refuse to think and live biblically, we are like foolish men who built their house on the sand (v. 26): when the inevitable storms of life came, “it fell, and great was the fall of it” (v. 27).

In light of Jesus’ wisdom, we can judge the foundation we cannot see by the effects of storms on the structure we can. Is America’s “house” standing or falling today?

When ancient Israel repented in obedient response to God’s word, Nehemiah assured them, “The joy of the Lᴏʀᴅ is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10). During this Advent week of joy, if we will do the former, we will experience the latter.

To this end, let’s remember Brock Purdy’s testimony: “The bottom line, my identity is in Jesus.”

What is your “bottom line” today?

Denison Forum