The “holly, jolly” is missing in my Christmas this year. My
friend’s daughter died in a car accident last week. In the midst of tragedy,
jingle bells, lights and Christmas cookies don’t mean much. But God’s story of
Christmas offers comfort to my soul.
This Christmas, I am clinging to Luke’s preface to the
Christmas story, those verses we don’t usually read. “It seemed good to me also, having had
perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write to you an
orderly account, most excellent Theophilus, that you may know the certainty of those things in which you were
instructed” (Luke 1:3-4 NKJV).
Many today think that we cannot know with certainty what happens after
death. I disagree. We can know because Christianity is not a moral philosophy
or a theory about spirituality. It is a statement that certain things happened
at a certain time in a certain place. These are facts that can be checked.
Either Jesus lived, died and rose again like the Bible says; or He did
not. If He did, we can be certain about life after death. “Because I live, you
also will live” (John 14:19 NKJV). If He did not, Christianity is
worthless.
My purpose today is not to blog about the amazing historic accuracy of
Luke’s gospel. Others have done that. (Click here for one site.) I’m just saying that I’m glad for
Christmas because God took on flesh and entered the world so that I can be
certain there is life beyond this world.
When I tell my friend that her daughter is happy in heaven, I’m not
engaging in wishful thinking. I am speaking the truth with a capital T.
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