The Reason for the Season

It was a busy evening in the emergency department.  Patients with chest pains and coughs and weird rashes were waiting for test results and hoping to leave before midnight.

In the midst of this semi-organized chaos, an ambulance pulled up with a four year old boy who had experienced a seizure at home.  As the EMS crew wheeled him in to the department, he went into another seizure.  As the emergency room physician gave some orders, the boy's father arrived.  "Doctor," he said plaintively.  "Why is he seizin'?  Why is he seizin'?"

"I don't know yet,"  the doctor told him, even as he choked back the desire to tell him, "Don't you know that Jesus is the reason for the seizin'?"

Christmas is a busy time.  It is a time of working extra hard to get a few days off,  a time of baking cookies for folks in jail and for neighbors, and a time of visiting people in nursing homes.  There is an awful lot of "good" busyness this time of year and in that, it is awfully easy to forget the Reason for the Season.

Of course, Jesus is the Reason for the Season and while He came to earth as a little baby, He didn't stay a tiny child.  The Incarnation was just one little step on a long road that lead to a cross and then to a victorious morning, three days later.  Without any of these steps, there would be no salvation.

I was reading the words to the poem "I heard the Bells on Christmas Day," recently.  It is easy to forget, in this time of terrorism and these days of chaos that there have been other dark times.  Longfellow penned these words during the American Civil War, when Longfellow's son had been seriously wounded and his wife had recently died.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet
The words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along
The unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!

And in despair I bowed my head;
"There is no peace on earth," I said:
"For hate is strong,
And mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!"

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead; nor doth he sleep!
The Wrong shall fail,
The Right prevail,
With peace on earth, good-will to men!"

In these words, I find hope in this time of darkness. For, I know that Jesus did bring peace -- not to the world as a whole, but to the hearts of those who trust Him.