Building a Bridge to Christmas

God’s heart broke when Adam and Eve brought sin into his perfect world.  It was to have been a world of unending Christmas.  The joy of perfect communion with the God of heaven had been destroyed. An uncrossable chasm formed between God and man.  In truth, nothing that man could conceive would ever be able to bridge the gap.

The Beginning

Judgment was declared and banishment from the garden was decreed. But God had a plan.  Giving up  on His beloved creation was not a part of that plan.  In fact, before the foundations of the world were formed, the Architect of Heaven laid out the blueprints to build a bridge to Christmas.

Into the deafening silence of defeat, could be heard the thud of the first bridge piling as it hit the bedrock of God’s truth. Etched on that piling was God’s promise of completion, despite the years that would pass before God’s plan was finished.

“I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 

Genesis 3:15

This revealed a glimpse into the promised Messiah. Most importantly, a promise of a Savior that would defeat Satan and bring salvation to the world.

The years passed and the evil in the world became great.  Instead of mankind leaning toward God, they turned away from God.  They did not care about bridging the gap between themselves and their Creator. Instead, they built towers to portray their prowess and formed a life devoid of God.

As the flood waters surged upon the earth to purge the evil from the world, God’s heart ached with sadness.  He watched as everything was destroyed except for the ark and the living creatures that had entered the ark. Though the waves were turbulent, and the gale-like winds were fierce that first bridge piling remained unshakeable.

Isn’t that the way of God?  When destruction is imminent, God steps into the rescue.

The Bridge

As the blueprints for the bridge to Christmas was stretched out again, God chose a man to become the head engineer of the construction, though he knew it not. God asked Abram to leave everything and begin a life of trust and obedience.  And Abram believed and obeyed God.

Abram’s choice to obey the Architect of Heaven affected the history of the world. Through his life Abraham traveled under the direction of God, building altars and believing despite the darkness.

However, it was Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, that lay down to sleep one night. He dreamed a dream of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven. A dream of impossibility. Yet in the face of that image God declared the intention of his heart for everyone.

“And, behold, I am with thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken of.”

Genesis 28:15

God was still working on the bridge. With God it wasn’t an impossibility to bridge the gap between Himself and His sin-stained creation. He had spoken and it would be done. Most importantly, God was coming so that He once again could live in unbroken fellowship with His children.

Your scarred and broken heart does not keep God at arm’s length.  In fact, it is in the messes that God comes.  God specializes in making good what others had meant for bad.

God was building a bridge to come to you. He comes to stay with you.

As the years rolled on, Satan’s ploys threatened to thwart God’s plan. There were family disputes and famine deprivation. Further devastation through Egyptian bondage and enforced slavery became the story of God’s people. Then God sent a deliverer. Surprisingly, this deliverance came through an unlikely basket that floated on the Nile River.

It is in the impossibility of rescue that God steps in.

The Divine Design

In the deliverance from Egypt, the crossing of the Red Sea and the trek through the wilderness, God deliberately laid down the underpinnings of the bridge to Christmas. God shared with Moses his plans and Moses shared the plans with God’s people. The procedure was painstakingly slow, but God would not have the foundation of the structure compromised.

As the bridge began to take shape, God threaded his blueprint through an unlikely group. People like the harlot, Rahab and Ruth of Moab. Then there was the shepherd boy, David, as well as the wicked king Manassah. God chose improbable people time and time again.

God chooses you too. You, who are laid bear with hurt or battered by wrong choices are not too unlikely for God.  His love stretches across the chasm you have constructed.

God sent prophets to lay down the abutments of the bridge to provide support for the structure. As the years rolled by God chose Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, Zechariah and others as his chief engineers.  This was a bridge that would arch across the chasm that sin had forged.

Though God’s people turned their back, God kept turning toward them.  He did not abandon them.  In fact, God’s love was unconditional and unstoppable. His love kept constructing the components of the way back to Himself.

And then came silence.  400 years of silence. To man’s perception the bridge to Christmas had been abandoned. Yet, God was honing the details. God had not forgotten His purpose. The design had not been rejected.

The Details Finalized

The silence was broken by a heavenly messenger. Moreover, the message was to another unlikely person. Mary was an ordinary girl, living in an ordinary village. However, God had an extraordinary plan that would finalize the details of the way back to God.

The greeting of the angel was reminiscent of God’s spoken words to Jacob many years ago.

“…the Lord is with thee…”

Luke 1:28

These words cocooned within the message given to Mary was God’s purpose for building the bridge to Christmas.  To clarify, God longed to once again live in unbroken fellowship with mankind. 

No matter how far you have gone or where you are, God’s love reaches farther. His love is a never-giving-up-on-you, kind of love.

As God performed what He had spoken, a baby was born in Bethlehem. The quiet of the night was disrupted by a choir of angels rejoicing. Emmanuel, God with us was born. Clearly, the supports had all been laid and now the One that was to bridge the chasm was here.

The Bridge to Christmas

When the shepherds came to worship and the wisemen presented gifts, Mary treasured these moments in her heart.  For she knew her son was the Son of God. Moreover, Mary knew that Jesus was to become the sacrifice for the whole world’s salvation.

Though the shadow of the cross that was to be the beam and girder of the bridge stretched across the moonlit courtyard that night, Mary rejoiced.

The uncrossable chasm had been crossed.  Finally, the Bridge to Christmas had come. God had made a way for His children to come back to Him.

If wrong choices have created an impassable chasm that keeps you from God, turn to the manger.  In Jesus was swaddled hope for the whole world. In other words, there is a way back to God. He comes to you with impossibilities accomplished. Jesus has bridged the gap for all mankind. 

A relationship with the God of the Universe has been gifted to you. Will you cross the bridge to Christmas and accept God’s priceless gift?