Nothing melts a group of chattering people faster than the opening of back Church doors and the beginning serenade of beautiful music. Suddenly hushed, people leap to their feet and turn to the back, cameras and cell phones lifted and ready, heads craning as young beautiful people walk solemnly down the aisle - and then happy tears begin to flow and there's a soft, muted chorus of voices: "There she is! How beautiful, how radiant. That dress is gorgeous! Her father looks so proud." And as the lovely bride joins hands with the equally lovely groom, God is smiling and saying "See, I am doing a new thing! This young couple will become two in one flesh and their mutual life and love will attract and change the world."
People melt and cry at another sight coming down a church aisle: a coffin. And yet, as the body is prayed over and people stand to speak of the goodness and radiance of a person's life, how he or she loved and took care of so many others, prayed for so many others, God is still smiling and saying "See, I am doing a new thing! I have freed your loved one from the body which was just a temporary tent. This soul is living healed and whole in eternal life; this soul continues to pray for you in constant intercession for you. You are united now in an entirely new relationship, in some ways even deeper than the one you had before - because now one of you lives beholding My Face and his joy is overflowing even into your heart."
In a few days we will kneel before the manger and meditate on a God Who would come naked and helpless into our world to do the most radically new thing this world could ever imagine - become Emmanuel, God-With-Us. A God Who will unite all creation in Himself, and radically renew our very image of Who we think God is! A God Who turns our ideas of success upside-down by teaching us about sacrificial love and forgiveness, humility and servanthood, the intertwining of justice and mercy. A God Whose very Presence will be so radically, powerfully new that Evil and Death will rise up to destroy Him - and be destroyed themselves by His redemptive Death, His glorious Resurrection.
Kneeling before such a God, how can our hearts not be changed? How can we not whisper words of love and thankfulness? When else in the history of the world has God come to live among us and save us?
"Behold, I am doing something new," God said, smiling, in Bethlehem. And the world doesn't comprehend the radical newness of His birth yet. He is the Light Who overcomes all darkness. He has overcome the world and we need not be afraid.