This Holy Tide of Christmas

A few years ago I watched "A Christmas Carol" starring Patrick Stewart for the first time.  I knew the story of Scrooge of course--thanks to Disney's version with Scrooge McDuck when I was younger and then having read Charles Dickens tale myself when I was older.  And as great a job as Stewart did in the role, it wasn't his portrayal that stuck with me.  Rather, perhaps for the first time, I was introduced to the hymn, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen."

Now, I'd probably heard and sung that hymn before first watching and hearing it on television.  But it was the first time I'd really paid attention to what the song was saying.  You can read the words for yourself here.  What caught my attention that night, and what has stuck with me since are the lines:

To save us all from Satan’s power,
When we were gone astray.

Here, in twelve words or less, was the summation of the Christian message--that God so loved the world, a world He had created, a world that had fallen, that He had devised a means to save us.  This is the story of why Christians believe Christmas had to happened, all presented in song form.

To sing those words, to believe them, is to be reminded not only of God's love, but also that sin is a very real part of the world we live in--and in order for us to be reconciled to God, we must be redeemed.  Indeed, what else should we expect from a holy God--one who can not abide sin, but loves sinners enough to do something about it?  We might debate what constitutes a sin, whether there is a hierarchy of sins, even the role culture plays in helping us determine sins (see all of this, and more -- including politics, television contracts and the like in the recent "Duck Dynasty" controversy).  But Christians should be able to agree that sin is real.  That it keeps us from God.  But that God devised a means to take away its eternal sting.  This then, is the story of Christmas.  As the hymn relates: 

This holy tide of Christmas,
Doth bring redeeming grace.

May that grace, that peace, be with you and yours this holiday season.