I thought I might do a little something, this year, that would help me focus on what this season is really about, and maybe it could help you, too. I’m going to take the story of Jesus’s birth, found in Luke 2, and go verse by verse, 1 through 24, to see what happens. Here we go…

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God… ~ Luke 2:13 NIV

Think, if you will, about your worst moment. Not when something horrible has happened to you, but when you’ve done something that makes you feel sick to your stomach at even the slightest recollection. Likely, if you are anything like me, that moment found you desperate for relief, forgiveness, redemption. Certainly, in my terrible moment, I felt completely unworthy of it – knew I was – but I craved it, nonetheless, for what seemed like an eternity, from the very depths of my spirit.

And then it came.

The rapturous moment enveloped me in blinding, glorious light, leaving me awash in breathless wonder, weightless at the lifting of such a burden. Much like, I imagine, some dirty shepherds in the darkest field, suddenly surrounded by an army of angels bearing the praise and glory of a long-awaited Redeemer.

If you’re really quiet, you can still hear it. The earth, itself, cries out the redemption song, with praise and adoration of The Great Forgiver. Desperate today? You’re in luck, for your rapturous moment has come. Allow yourself to be blinded by the light, weightless.

Allow yourself to be awash in breathless wonder.

Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth. ~ Ephesians 1:7 MSG