Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6

My friend Paul Finkenbinder wrote, “December 17, 1903 is considered one of mankind’s important progress dates. On this date, Orville and Wilbur Wright succeeded in flying their homemade airplane for 59 seconds, covering a distance of 852 feet at a speed of approximately 6.8 miles per hour. Sixty-five years later man was flying to the moon, a distance of some 225,742 miles at its nearest point to earth, at a speed of thirty thousand miles per hour.

“When the Wright Brothers completed their first successful flight they were extremely exuberant. They immediately sent a telegram to their sister who lived in Dayton, Ohio. The famous telegram read, ‘First successful flight, 59 seconds. Will be home for Christmas.’

“The excited sister ran into town to see the editor of the local paper. The editor read the telegram and told the sister, ‘Tomorrow, we will publish it.’

“The very next morning the banner headlines read, ‘THE WRIGHT BROTHERS, WELL KNOWN BICYCLE IMPORTERS, WILL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.”

The editor missed the whole point. He could have scooped one of the greatest achievements of the century, perhaps the past two millennia, and he just didn’t get it. The Wright brothers’ arriving back home for Christmas was inconsequential; the first airplane flight was monumental.

You know I’ve been wondering what the headlines might have read in Bethlehem the week Jesus was born. Do you suppose there was a small article telling about overflow crowds in the city forcing the manager of the local inn to house patrons in the stable where a baby was born to a couple from Nazareth? Though it is referred to as an inn, it was more like a rest stop or shelter, not a hotel. Jesus was probably born in a shelter where cattle were kept, possibly even a cave.

Many people today are just as much in the dark when it comes to what Christmas is about. A newspaper survey indicated that most people today no longer associate the coming of the Christ child, the long awaited Messiah whose birth was foretold by the prophets, with December 25.

What was the point of Christ’s coming? Certainly not toys and tinsel. Nor is it gifts and celebrations, nor a holiday to give us a brief respite from the dark days of December. John so magnificently puts it in a few words: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). A paraphrase explains, “Christ became a human being and lived here on earth among us and was full of loving forgiveness and truth. And some of us have seen his glory–the glory of the only Son of the heavenly Father!” (Living Bible).

The implications are not merely that this would be the year 2014 A.D. or anno domini, Latin for “the year of our Lord,” but that we would yet be in our sin, because from the beginning the purpose of His coming was to deliver us from the bondage which had kept humankind in darkness. To Joseph, the husband of Mary, the angel said, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

A closing question: Do you really understand the importance of December 25? Or, sadly, has the tremendous meaning been obscured by seasonal activities? Remember the editor of the paper who missed the whole point when Wilbur and Orville Wright made their first flight? Be sure you get it, friend. It’s the most important truth in the world.

Resource reading: Matthew 2:1-12.