When we prepare for Christmas service we often are drawn to Christmas cards with a peaceful scene. It might have been one of a snow-covered house with warm inviting lights within. It might be a manger scene. A card might include the words, “…peace on earth, good will toward men.”
For mankind, Christ’s gift was to bring peace but it wasn’t the kind of peace we normally think of here on earth.
What God did by sending his Son Jesus to be born as a baby was to initiate an attack on the spirit world that was akin to what “blitzkrieg” was to allied forces fighting the Nazi army.
Revelation 12:7 talks about this war in the heavenlies.
It was huge but completely unseen by the human eye.
It was a war that so enraged Satan that he, “…went off to make war against…those who obey God’s commands and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
Christians face this opposition every day. Much of the time they don’t even know it.
But it was much more than the birth of Jesus. It was his death and resurrection that sealed Satan’s final defeat and destiny.
Jesus proclaimed victoriously, “it is finished” (John 19:30) from the cross.
This proclamation wasn’t just for the people around the cross it was for all of creation, his victory cry, his work complete.
This Christmas, my wish is for you to experience the peace that is offered to you.
Not a peace from war, trial or calamity but “…the peace of God, which transcends all understanding…” (Phillipians 4:7).
It is the kind of peace we have with God because of the sacrifice of Jesus on our behalf. Merry Christmas!
Ken Cyr is the pastor of Maple Park Alliance Church in Quesnel.