By Doug Redford
I’ll Be Home for Christmas is one of the most familiar songs of the Christmas season. It can create an anticipation of gathering with family to enjoy Christmas dinner, perhaps preceded or followed by a gift exchange. It can stir memories of past Christmases and scenes from one’s childhood that, like Christmas presents, can be opened and treasured annually. For others, however, home and Christmas bring to mind nothing but sadness and heartbreak—perhaps even anger and bitterness because of surroundings that were anything but “merry.”
Consider those who took part in the series of events that culminated in Jesus’ birth. “Home for Christmas” did not apply to Joseph and Mary; they had to travel some 90 miles from Nazareth of Galilee to Bethlehem in obedience to the emperor’s decree, even though Mary was, as the King James rendering puts it, “great with child.” But the longest road, the most mind-boggling, mind-stretching road is the road that the Creator God traveled. He came from his heavenly home to earth, to live within a young woman’s womb—a road never before traveled. We cannot measure it in miles; we can only stand amazed in wonder at the “blessed event” that we celebrate in this season.
As we observe Communion today, we remember why Immanuel (God with us) traveled such a distance. He did so because of how distant we were from our heavenly Father as the result of our sin. All of us were far away from home, spiritually speaking: another distance that cannot be measured in miles.
Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son is usually not considered part of the Christmas story. Yet it pictures so well “the reason for the season”: the depth of love that our Father in heaven has for every human being and how desperately he longs for us to come back home. Here at the Communion table, we gather as wanderers who have come home and are part of God’s forever family: his church. The meal before us is not a “fattened calf.” Here we remember the sinless Lamb of God, who gave his life at the cross to fulfill what the angel told Joseph about Mary’s child: “he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21, New International Version). We take these emblems of Communion, looking forward to the grand homegoing that awaits all Christians—another journey that cannot be measured in miles, but one that we anticipate: being home for eternity.
Doug Redford has served in the preaching ministry, as an editor of adult Sunday school curriculum, and as a Bible college professor. Now retired, he continues to write and speak as opportunities arise.
Contact us at cs@christianstandardmedia.com
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