Optics

One of the marks of the Christmas season are its sights (also sounds, shopping, family, special programs, foods and anticipation).  Drive up and down most any street or step into almost any front room and you are greeted by the sights of Christmas which are lights, blow-ups, and the occasional manger scene (creche).  And some are quite dazzling!  

Also, in many homes one will find a creche season or two or many!  In most scenes will be found shepherds, wisemen, animals, and Mary and Joseph gathered around a manger that holds the Newborn.  One of the blessings of this Christmas decoration is its calm!  Oh, how we need such a scene after the crazy year of 2020 with all its commotion and fears.  

Pause and ponder the scene:  A precious newborn lying in a manger – the hope and joy that comes with a newborn, especially this Newborn!  Then look on Mary and Joseph – peaceful and joyful!  After some crazy months going back to word that the elderly Zacharias and Elizabeth were going to have a baby, through Joseph having to cope with Mary’s pregnancy, to Rome rearing its head again, and then to “No room” – but now all is well!  And note the animals are resting and calm – nature is at peace. How good is that scene? Yes, the Christmas creche is a soothing scene and we sure need such a picture today.  Spend some time these days gazing into your creche and let God touch your soul.  

Optics – sights and scenes – are very powerful and thus very important.  For many, if not for most, optics are most important. Just consider the advertising that pollutes our world.  Optics – pretty people, fabulous backgrounds, and the appearance of great success.  How important are optics to selling stuff from cars to phones?  And speaking of phones, a big selling point for the iPhone 12 is its photo and play abilities – its optic qualities.  And a drastic boost in optics is found in the developing 5G system.  Speed and quality improve the optics.  

But we are, too often and too much, a visually driven people.  We like pretty people wearing cool clothes and cool shades.  We are drawn to those who have hot rides and fancy housing.  We like to be seen with people who look cool.  We are obsessed with optics.  [Note – optics are not all wrong as God creates some pretty fantastic sunsets, mountain and waterfall scenes, and moments.]

While optics are very important and powerful, they are not the most critical – rather, it is the message!  Back to the calming creche scene in your home…  Without words – sound – what is to be understood?  Without the words of the heralding angel, “Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord”, what is happening?  In that communication we learn that this Baby is the one promised in the Old Testatment – the Christ, the Messiah.  We also learn something very shocking.  The Baby is God – He is the Lord!  Wait!  The infant bound in swaddling and lying in a feed bunk by parents of poverty and found in a small village under the shadow of a great city and unable to talk is God?  WOW!  What makes that creche scene so important?  Words!  

And more is to be learned from the words of the angel.  This manger scene is personal – about me!  What?  Yes!  “Unto you!”  The Baby is a Savior.  If He is a Savior for me, then I must be in need and so says God:  God declares that I am lost, in trouble, in danger and needing saved.  I need Jesus!  So while the optics of the creche are calming and all is well, the words that go with the scene, about my need and this Infant as my rescue, greatly change the scene.  

The scene can calm, but of far greater importance is its call.  Will I agree with God and do as the shepherds, “Let us go see”?  And then embrace this Infant as my Savior?  The world will know for the shepherds could not be silent (Luke 2:17-18) – one saved by Jesus will talk!

The creche optics were trumped by the words – “Jesus was born to save – me!”  Have I yielded?