Stake your eternal happiness on a Baby born in a stable, and laid to rest in feeding trough? That’s a fool’s hope, but it leads to the delight of heaven. The object of hope is a future good, difficult yet possible to obtain. In contrast to the common perception of our time, the entry to heaven is narrow and the going is hard. Yet if we welcome this Baby into our lives, what appears a fool’s hope is actually firm trust in the faithfulness of God-with-us: fear not…it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). This Baby - Jesus Christ - wants to save us, and if we only allow ourselves to be suffused with His brilliance, our thoughts and deeds will be conformed to His, leading to an immortality of celebration in His company forever.
Staking our eternal happiness on the Christ Child seems a fool’s hope for what is a child but weak, defenseless, and vulnerable? Yet such is the way of God; His wisdom is not ours; His manner of saving us is not according to our presumptions. Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? But to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:20, 24-25).
The beauty of Christmas is that God approaches us in this disarming way so that we might not hesitate to draw near and allow ourselves to be transformed by His light. As we begin to undergo that reconfiguration of our person to His, making our thoughts and deeds His thoughts and deeds, our lives are made honorable. After a lifetime of virtuous living we become worthy of eternal union with Him.
Growth in virtue takes time and practice; this is how good habits are formed and possible only by hoping in Christ. He makes it easy for us to place our hope in Him, coming as He does in such a vulnerable way. Let us in turn be as vulnerable, and allow Him to work in and through us, bringing us to salvation.
Merry Christmas!
David J. Conrad
Staking our eternal happiness on the Christ Child seems a fool’s hope for what is a child but weak, defenseless, and vulnerable? Yet such is the way of God; His wisdom is not ours; His manner of saving us is not according to our presumptions. Where is the wise one? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made the wisdom of the world foolish? But to those who are called…Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength (1 Corinthians 1:20, 24-25).
The beauty of Christmas is that God approaches us in this disarming way so that we might not hesitate to draw near and allow ourselves to be transformed by His light. As we begin to undergo that reconfiguration of our person to His, making our thoughts and deeds His thoughts and deeds, our lives are made honorable. After a lifetime of virtuous living we become worthy of eternal union with Him.
Growth in virtue takes time and practice; this is how good habits are formed and possible only by hoping in Christ. He makes it easy for us to place our hope in Him, coming as He does in such a vulnerable way. Let us in turn be as vulnerable, and allow Him to work in and through us, bringing us to salvation.
Merry Christmas!
David J. Conrad
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