Agape means God’s love for Man. The biblical passage below shows God’s love for Man. No one in his right sense will give his own Son to be slain by others. But God did. A father will die to protect his son.
God gave His own Son to die for us. That’s how deep and intense God’s love is for us. In total humility and sacrifice, God, all-powerful, creator of all that is, gave His very own Son to be crucified on the cross to save us from our sins. This Theology of Salvation is the core of our Christian faith, the essence of Christmas. We adore you, oh Child of Bethlehem, for Your gift of salvation.
For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that all who believe in Him may not perish and may have life eternal. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to save it through Him. (John 3:16-18)
700 years before the birth of Christ, Isaiah predicted the birth of Jesus, comparing it to the time in the Old Testament when the Assyrians fooled the Israelites into an alliance which would later end up in their subjugation and slavery. It was the era of darkness. But God, through Isaiah, promised the coming of the Light which would conquer the darkness, hope in a time of despair.
This is the essence of Christmas. We adore you oh Child of Bethlehem for Your gift of salvation.
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great Light glow in the valley of death. Anguish has taken wing. darkness is overcome. gloom and distress have vanished. You bring great rejoicing, Lord. You have smashed the yoke that burdens us, the pole on our shoulders, the whip of the slave master. (Isaiah 8:23-9:5)
As a young man, I had an adventure of a lifetime, hitchhiking through Europe and North Africa, covering 18,000 kilometers for three long years non-stop. It was not a dream that drove me to take wings but a nightmare. I hated New York. I rested from my wild adventures and made a pilgrimage, walking 80 kilometers for seven days from Lisbon to Fatima, asking Mama Mary to help me find myself, to guide me through the cruel world out there, as I did not know the ‘way’.
There was a slight drizzle on the fourth day of my pilgrimage walk. I asked a farmer if I could sleep in his sheep’s shed. It had a certain sheep odor that was a bit offensive. Suddenly, the birth of Jesus came to me in a flash.
That drizzle was a blessing. It opened my eyes to a cosmic view of the Birth of Jesus, how the Lord of the cosmos, of the countless stars within billions of galaxies, could be born in a manger meant not for humans but for baby sheep. In that shed, on that strange silent night, I discovered the essence of Christmas. We adore you, oh Child of Bethlehem, for Your gift of salvation.
The drizzle was perhaps sent by the Lord to give the Light that I was asking for. I suddenly realized how it defied the imagination that the Creator of the vast Universe was humble enough to be born in a crib meant for newborn sheep. The hay of such a crib was itchy on the skin. The swaddling cloth helped, but still, the God, who made all of us, did not stay in a three-star inn but a no-star sheep shed.
His power must be awesome and limitless to be able to do this, the omnipotent God, in total humility, born in a manger, at whose side powerful kings, simple shepherds, and winged angels knelt in adoration.
(To order the author’s book on his adventures, Wings and Wanderlust, email him at eastwindreplyctr@gmail.com. It is a good Christmas gift. No need to shop. Just order online for your friends.)