Behold Our Wondrous Salvation

Christmas is often presented to us as a sanitized, perfect holiday—complete with twinkling lights, picture-perfect family cards, and cheerful gatherings. Yet when we strip away these modern trappings and look honestly at the biblical narrative, we discover something far more profound: Christmas is war. It's an invasion into enemy-occupied territory. Mark's Gospel doesn't begin with a cozy manger scene but with a bold declaration that salvation has arrived. Drawing from the prophets Malachi and Isaiah, Mark shows us that after 400 years of divine silence, God has finally spoken—not through another message, but through His Son. The Christmas story is filled with unbelief, confusion, terror, and scandal, all unfolding in the most insignificant of places. This is the real Christmas: God tearing open the heavens and entering our broken, spoiled world. For those of us struggling with disappointment, sickness, depression, or fear this season, this truth offers profound comfort. Christmas isn't about pretending life is perfect; it's about God meeting us in our mess. The incarnation declares that salvation is here, anticipates the work of salvation through confession and repentance, and expresses God's heart—that we are His beloved. When Jesus emerged from the waters of baptism, heaven itself was torn open, collapsing the distance between the divine and the human. We are invited to behold this salvation, to peel back its layers and discover its glory, knowing that our identity rests not in our achievements but in God's relentless tenderness toward us.