(taken from Theological Horizons, ezine of “The Project on Lived Theology”)
“Children, it is the last hour!” I John 2:18
“John’s words, written centuries ago, have an apocalyptic tone. But his deeper message is meant for childlike hearts. He offers, not words of panic, but words of peace and reassurance. We who know Christ, who receive him, who believe in his name, receive power to become children of God. ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’
“By living the Christin life on the deepest possible level, we remain secure in God no matter how fearful the times. How do we do this? Not by denying the uncomfortable facts of our environment and our troubled societies, but by letting the Incarnate Christ transform us. The God life within us will strengthen us in times of war and peace. And with transformed hearts we will do what we can for our anxious neighbors and our societies.”
–Emilie Griffin in God With Us: Rediscovering the Meaning of Christmas
“When the time was fulfilled for the baby to be born, she gave birth to her firstborn, a son.” Luke 2:6
“‘When the time was fulfilled…’ What a redeeming power there is in these words! We are concerned day and day out with lesser or greater matters that are to serve God and his cause. We work sometimes until we are weary and yet we see so little fruit. Does everything remain as it was? Haven’t we gone forward at all? Have we really been able to help a little somewhere, or have we merely affected the surface of things? Where is there a trace or glimpse of the goal we long for? What are all our efforts against the apparently indestructible powers of misery and evil?
“It is well for us that at such hours the light is shining from the stable of Bethlehem and that we are able to sense what it means that the kingdom of God was born a little child when the time was fulfilled.
Christmas did not come after a great mass of people had completed something good, or because of the successful result of any human effort. No, it came as a miracle, as the child that comes when his time is fulfilled, as a gift of the Father which he lays into those arms which are stretched out with longing. In this way did Christmas come; in this way it always comes anew, both to individuals and to the whole world.”
–Eberhard Arnold in When The Time Was Fulfilled