Christmas is About the Extraordinary

Christmas is SO Much More

Ready or not, we are under way towards Christmas. We see it. We feel it. We smell it. We hear it. And we can taste it. I remember one Christmas season becoming completely drained. It was after I became the pastor but while I was still in the Army, and I was driving to my unit in San Antonio. I had been filled with decorating, gifting, Christmas caroling and more when I put in a CD by Michael W Smith. One particular song (“Son of God”) stood out to me, and it had just a few words

Son of God, purest lights

Lord on high is here tonight

Stepping through this sacred sky

Suddenly our eyes behold

Heaven’s perfect plan unfold

Son of God.

Son of God, love divine

Timeless one steps into time

Who could dream of such a thing?

With us now, the King of kings.

Men and angels bow and sing.

Heaven invaded my car as I left Schertz and drove into San Antonio. I’d hit the gold mine about why Christmas is so wonderful – the Son of God.

In the Dr. Seuss story, the Grinch Who Stole Christmas there is a dramatic moment when the Grinch realizes that he missed the point of Christmas. “He puzzled and puzzled till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn't before. Maybe Christmas, he thought...doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps...means a little bit more!”

Yes Grinch, Christmas is about much more!

Christmas is the Ultimate Shekinah

Cindy and I met at Shekinah Bible College. We didn’t know what it meant at the time, but it was a wonderful small college, and the people truly loved the Lord. The church that hosted the school had experienced a tremendous move of the Spirit and we were drawn to the school. Cindy was drawn from south Louisiana, and I was drawn from western New York. A Jewish rabbi defines Shekinah this way,

“Shekinah’ is a Hebrew word that refers to a collective vision that brings together dispersed fragments of divinity. It is usually understood as a light-disseminating presence, bringing an awareness of God to a time and place where God is not expected to be—a place. It’s not a public spectacle but more like a selective showing at God’s discretion to encourage or affirm, to reveal a reality of something that we do not yet have eyes to see.”[1]

As I was driving to my Army unit, I didn’t expect to have an awareness of God flood my car like it did as I traveled I35 south. The Grinch didn’t expect to have his heart flood with emotion the way it would. That is what happens when the Shekinah glory of God shows up in our lives. The good news is that is what Christmas is all about.

Let’s go back to the birth of Jesus.

The Shekinah Glory of God

One of the reasons that Christmas is SO much more is because there were many Shekinah moments surrounding the birth of Jesus. Let’s look at just a couple of them:

Mary, an Extraordinary Young Woman

Mary expected a life like all the other young women her age. She had hoped to marry well, be a faithful wife and have many children to assist with the household chores and help Joseph in the family business. That is…until the angel Gabriel showed up!

Luke 1:26–38 NIV

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

It is amazing how quickly Mary’s cookie cutter life transformed into mothering Jesus, the Son of the Most High. All normalcy was gone, everything changed in a moment!

Joseph, No Ordinary Father

Life can be weird. For Joseph his plans to marry Mary and begin a family hit a fork in the road when he learned that Mary was pregnant. I can’t help but think that Mary had tried to explain her pregnancy by the Holy Spirit to Joseph, but it appears that it was too much to be believed. It would take a Shekinah moment with the appearance of an angel to convince him.

Matthew 1:18–25 NIV

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 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.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

He intended to, sort of, kindly divorce Mary, but, instead, he realized that his son would become Immanuel, God with us. The Spirit of God moved him from what was normal to what is extraordinary.

No Ordinary Day for the Shepherds

Outside the city limits of Bethlehem were shepherds

Luke 2:8–15 NIV

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

How many nights had the shepherds either shivered in the cold or sweat through the night and only heard the snoring of their friends? But on this night their hillside became a window into Heaven itself! The Shekinah glory of God manifested, and a normal night became an extraordinary night.

Shekinah Moments Change Everything!

I wonder if Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds considered the other times in the history of Israel when the Shekinah glory invaded? Did they think back to the construction of the wilderness tabernacle and remember the way that the glory of God filled the temple?

Exodus 40:34–35 NIV

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Moses could not enter the tent of meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Did they remember Solomon’s temple and how the Shekinah glory fell?

1 Kings 8:10–11 NIV

When the priests withdrew from the Holy Place, the cloud filled the temple of the Lord. And the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled his temple.

They probably did but most of all they knew that their homes, their fields, and a stable in the heart of Bethlehem had changed from the ordinary to the extraordinary. A stable had become a throne room.

It begs the question, “Is Christmas more than a month of sweets, lights, songs, and gifts?” Obviously, the answer is “yes”. We need it to be “yes”. Afterall,

- Just like Mary we would be forced to live ‘cookie cutter’ lives without the presence of Jesus

- Just like Joseph we can have the extraordinary instead of what is plain and ordinary

- Just like the shepherds, the ‘hillsides’ of our lives can be transformed into amphitheaters of the supernatural.

Have you experienced a Shekinah moment? It begins with salvation. Consider these moments from the Bible….

Peter

Mark 8:27–29 NIV

Jesus and his disciples went on to the villages around Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked them, “Who do people say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

Paul

Acts 9:1–4 NIV

Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

Acts 9:18–20 NIV

Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Saul spent several days with the disciples in Damascus. At once he began to preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God.

We could go on to point out Cornelius, the jailer, an Ethiopian, the Corinthians, Simon the sorcerer, and, of course, the Jews on Pentecost. All of them went from their normal to extraordinary through the glory of God, a Shekinah experience!

I don’t know what your life is like right now. I can tell you that having Jesus Christ as my Savior has changed my life, given me purpose and passion, and helped me make sense of everything around me. The Spirit of Christmas is not able celebrating Christmas right, it is about knowing the right One to celebrate with…the One who changes the normal things into extraordinary things.

We need Shekinah experiences – it is greatest reason that Christmas is SO much more. Don’t go dragging your feet into Christmas…go with an expectation of having a Shekinah experience that will change you forever!

[1] Excerpt From: Eugene H. Peterson. “The Pastor.” Apple Books. https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-pastor/id412370088