Sometimes I get so homesick . . . for website that writes essays the Home I’ve never seen.

It’s the Christmas season, and these lyrics reminded me tonight of the crushing weight of exile we humans have known since the fall. I believe that the Christian feels it most of all. We are strangers and aliens here.

At the time of the birth of Jesus the people that he came to were experiencing the silence of God. They were exiles in their own land, experiencing the oppression of the occupying Roman army, and the oppression of sin, and of creation itself, under the curse of the Fall.

Christmas is not just a time of gifts, although through gifts we remember the Gift our Father gave us. So much more, Christmas is a remembrance and celebration of rescue, of the first days of the invasion of divinity in bodily form into our human condition. It is the birth of Immanuel, come to ransom captive Israel. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

That’s Christmas. It’s the celebration of the humbling of Christ, a humbling beyond our comprehension that finds him as a baby in a dirty stable. And we who are exiled adore this precious little one, so small and yet sent to rescue us all. The love, the grace, the infinite power of God was delivered to our doorstep in such a small package!

I hope your Christmas season finds you happy and among friends and family. But if you feel the loneliness of exile and the oppressive weight of your brokenness, know that you are not alone. I’ve felt it too. And when I did, years ago, I knelt and received the gift of Christmas, the Christ who died for me even when I was his enemy.

Kneel by the stable and adore. For, behold, though just a baby, here is your Champion who fights for you. He is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world. He lived, he died, and he lives again, ever ready to save.

May I remember these truths this Christmas season.

Welcome to our world, Lord Jesus!