For many, Christmastime is a season to celebrate family and friendships, traditions and prosperity, kindness and generosity. My family is no exception. We love the Christmas season. We love the movies and music. We love the way the early and cold nights keep us inside and cozy. We love the trees, the lights, and giving each other gifts. For many, this is all Christmas is about.

But a select few refuse to let the goodness of these elements mask the true greatness of Christmas—they are not so easily satisfied. For them, a hunger (and even pain) drives them forward to something better and more beautiful. For them, a longing exists, a desire placed in them by the divine. For them, satisfaction cannot come by masking the darkness of our world with holiday cheer. For them, Christmas cheer can only come by partaking of God.

Fortunately, Christmas provides them with this opportunity. Christ has come! So we can know God!

Zechariah and Gabriel

We can know God only because God wanted us to know him—which is why he sent his only Son. Prophets had foretold for many centuries that a Savior would arise to rescue us from darkness and unite us to our Maker.

And by the first century, long, hard years had eroded the hope of God's people. They had not heard the prophetic word of God for four centuries. And the vacuum of God's silence was filled with the authoritative word of the Roman government. The invaders had come, and God's people were under occupation.

But, even though the prophets had been silent, righteous God-seekers remained. Two such people were named Zechariah and Elizabeth. He was a priest, and she was his loving wife. For years, they faithfully sought and served God.

And, though they were godly, they were stricken with barrenness. They wanted a child but could not have one. In their younger years, they prayed God would give them offspring, but as they aged, their prayer faded.

One day, Zechariah was chosen for the rare honor of delivering a prayer offering inside the temple. And when Zechariah entered Jerusalem's temple to offer incense with his prayer, he found an angel standing to the right of the altar.

Zechariah trembled in fear, but the angel Gabriel spoke, telling Zechariah that his prayer for a child had not gone unnoticed. The God who miraculously opened the womb of Sarah, Rachel, and Rebekah, would give Elizabeth a child as well. They would name him John. This child, Gabriel announced, would fulfill God's promises by coming in the Spirit and power of the Old Testament prophet Elijah and would prepare the way for the Christ.

Zechariah struggled to believe, so he questioned Gabriel, saying, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years."

Gabriel was equally astounded at Zechariah and told him he knew God personally and was sent by God to deliver this news. It would surely come to pass. But Zechariah would be mute until John was born.

Zechariah then went home and, just as God had declared, Elizabeth conceived.

Mary and Gabriel

In the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy, Gabriel again appeared, this time to a young virgin in a forgotten town hacked into the rocky hillside of Northern Israel called Nazareth. Mary was betrothed—or engaged—to Joseph, the town carpenter, but a descendant of the great Old Testament King David.

Gabriel referred to Mary as the favored one of the Lord before announcing to her that she would conceive and bear a son. He said, "You shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end."

Mary inquired as to how this would occur since she was not yet a married woman, and Gabriel told her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God."

After announcing this, Gabriel told Mary about her aged relative Elizabeth and how she was also with child even though she'd been barren for so many years. He said, "For nothing will be impossible with God."

And when Mary heard all this, she said, "I am God's servant. Let it be to me according to your word." She had listened to the call of God and submitted herself wholly to the task he gave her. She stepped up. Though it cost her dearly—in reputation and in the death of her son—Mary bowed herself to God and his plan.

Mary and Elizabeth

Because of the news of Elizabeth's pregnancy and the shock of her own, Mary traveled to Zechariah and Elizabeth's home in the hills of Judah. When she entered the house, she greeted Elizabeth, and Elizabeth's baby—preborn John the Baptist—leaped in her womb.

Elizabeth exclaimed, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! When the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who believed!"

This exclamation from Elizabeth pushed Mary into song. Perhaps prepared, perhaps extemporaneous, Mary praised God by forming Old Testament Scriptures and promises into lyrics of worship. She celebrated him for being a rescuing God who breaks into the darkness to help the poor, struggling, and hurting. And she said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed."

After staying with Elizabeth until she was full term, Mary went home to Nazareth to await the birth of Jesus. Elizabeth's son, Jesus' forerunner and personal prophet, was born. And Zechariah's first words since his encounter with Gabriel were, "He shall be called John." Zechariah sang a prophetic song detailing the life of John and Jesus, and the whole hill country of Judea rumbled with the news of these events.

Mary and Joseph

About that time, the long and painful reign of Caesar Augustus reached a new level of dominance. In a show of power, he mandated that everyone in his empire be numbered in their city of origin. Joseph, being a descendant of David, needed to travel to David's Bethlehem to be counted as Caesar had said.

By this time, Joseph had determined he would follow through with his marriage to Mary. When he discovered her pregnancy, he had a mind to end their engagement. But the angel appeared to him in a dream and told him the child was from the Spirit, to take Mary as his wife, and to name the boy Jesus. Jesus would save his people from their sins, the angel announced. So Joseph, in humble obedience to God, took Mary with him to Bethlehem, even though she was nearly full term.

Once in Bethlehem, Joseph and Mary discovered a swollen city. The census had brought people far and wide back to the tiny village. And amidst the city's frenzy, there was Mary, a young girl ready to give birth. And, like billions of women before and after her, labor pains came upon Mary. Likely scared and worried, they looked for a place to usher in this new life, but the Bible says, "there was no place for them in the inn."

Perhaps Joseph and Mary, due to the suspicious nature of Mary's pregnancy, had been rejected by Joseph's relatives in Bethlehem. Perhaps the typical guest room was withheld from them, even though she was with child. And perhaps Mary and Joseph were driven to the outskirts of town where birthing caves for lambs were found. It was there they found the stone feeding trough we know as a manger. There, in that cave or stable, or barn, Jesus was born.

With Mary's pregnancy and Jesus' birth, God had become flesh and dwelt among us. In anonymity, in the quiet, without the world's notice, the Christ, the Savior, the Messiah was born. On a lonely night in an overcrowded village among an oppressed people, Jesus arrived. The Creator God, the majestic sovereign overall, had become one of us.

Shepherds and Angels

Hardly anyone knew on that night—except for a handful of shepherds. In the fields outside Bethlehem, the shepherds watched over their flocks, and an angelic choir appeared in the heavens announcing the gospel of peace Jesus would bring. One angel with God's glory shining about him approached the shepherds.

As they trembled in fear, the angel declared, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger."

The shepherds, overwhelmed, then headed into Bethlehem and found it just as the angels had said. A baby. Wrapped in swaddling cloths. Lying in a manger. As they left the scene, they glorified and worshipped God, but Mary treasured these things in her heart.

His Mission

This baby would become a boy and a man who would be crucified for the sin of the world. He would die for us. And this great birth of Jesus whispered his ultimate purpose and mission.

At his birth, Mary and Joseph were present. At his death, many Marys, including this one, stood at his cross and came to his grave, one donated by a man named Joseph.

At his birth, his family obeyed the Roman authority, who demanded they be counted in Bethlehem. At his death, Jesus submitted to Rome's Pontius Pilate but told Pilate that his authority had been granted to him by God.

At his birth, Jesus was wrapped in swaddling cloths. At his death, he was wrapped in cloths for his burial in Jerusalem.

At his birth, Jesus was born in the same place many lambs were born—lambs who would grow up to be sacrificed in neighboring Jerusalem's temple. At his death, Jesus became the ultimate sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the earth.

At his birth, Jesus was laid in a manger, a feeding trough most likely carved from stone. At his death, Jesus was laid in a tomb carved out of the side of a rock.

At his birth, the shepherds heard a glorious message hinting at what he would do and told it to Mary and Joseph. At his death—and resurrection—a new set of shepherds, the disciples, heard the glorious message of what he had done and told it to the world.

At his birth, Jewish prophets like Simeon and Anna testified to his greatness. After his ascension, the church testified to his greatness.

And at his birth, wise men came from far-off nations to honor him. But after his death, his people went to far-off nations to tell the world of his honor, to proclaim his glorious message.

We still proclaim that glorious message today. The light has come. It has broken through the darkness. God has made the way for mankind to be saved. And it is through his Son.

Merry Christmas.