GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST Pt1
“For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you: Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the he
AS THE Christmas season heightens, churches, schools, and several institutions in Jamaica and other Christian nations across the world have already begun echoing these words in speeches, songs, and other creative forms of expression. As a child, I participated annually in Sunday school plays centred on these verses. The tradition continues for my children.
There are many Christian holidays. In fact, there are many other holidays of great significance, but no holiday observed in this nation has received the level of respect, jubilance, and awe as this holiday. Even those who are not sure of the meaning and the history of Christmas know that this is no ordinary season and though, on occasions, their celebrations do not reflect the essence of Christ’s birth, they celebrate nonetheless, to the distaste of some who insist that reverence to God must be the hallmark of Christmas.
MANY GLORIOUS ACTS OF GOD
From the dawn of creation, angels, as the Bible teaches and as we have accepted, have been God’s messengers and His ministering spirits to man. They have observed and foretold many wondrous things. They observed the world coming into existence with the only raw material being the spoken words of God. David said, “He spoke and it was done; He commanded and it stood fast”.
They observed God’s creative power when He made man from the dust of the Earth. They were, again, in awe in the days of Paleg when the Earth was divided, creating continents, countries, and islands and again at the Tower of Babel, where different languages were introduced, causing people to migrate to these different territories. Angels witnessed the days of Noah when it rained on the Earth for the first time destroying all unsheltered life form, then life springing again after the flood. They observed the parting of the Red Sea and the River Jordan and the tumbling of the walls of Jericho. The angels of the Lord were there observing, and in instances, participating in the wonders of God’s power.
His works glorify His name in His creation and with each demonstration of His power, His awe resounds in Heaven and on Earth.
HIS HIGHEST DEMONSTRATION OF POWER
Our eternal God and Father, whose spirit fills Heaven and Earth – in fact, Heaven and Earth are not able to contain His presence – caused the angelic realm to resound with its highest worship, greatest awe and excitement, as they assembled their best choir to convey the news to the shepherds, and by extension, all mankind. This news was that the God, whom Earth and Heaven are too small to contain, had compressed Himself to live in the womb of a virgin, conforming to the natural laws of human development, then at full term, entered the birth canal of Mary and was delivered as a baby, solely dependent on the nurturing process of His mother, conforming to the stages of human growth and development, toothless, hairless, helpless. God did this with one aim, the salvation of lost humanity, the rescue of man from sin and all its sure penalties of eternal death and damnation. No man was able to do this because the best of us were contaminated in our conception and by our birth, inheriting sin from our bloodline then becoming further contaminated by committing great sins of our own.
This is why, in this period, we – all across this land and other Christian lands – join with the heavenly host, assembling our best choirs, our best actors, our best orators, to rejoice with all our might, with all sincerity of heart, with one voice, one heart, one mind, singing ‘Glory to God in the Highest’. His entrance to humanity to salvage us was and is His greatest act and deserves, and will continue to receive, throughout all ages, angelic and humanity’s highest praise.