O  come let us adore Him!

It is Christmas in just a few days. I am far from home visiting our daughter and family in Salt Lake for the holidays. One of the reasons for our coming was to attend Grand Parents’ Day at the girls’ school and to hear our  grand daughter sing in the cathedral choir this week. Earlier today they presented Benjamin Britton’s “Procession of the Carols” and  when the choir entered the church singing a capella I felt awestruck. The music was majestic and glorious. The huge cathedral rang and resounded with the harmonies of young voices blending together in a joyful chorus of adoration.

I am reminded again this year of Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth when

… suddenly there appeared with the angel a great multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying:…Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom His favor rests. Luke 2:13-14

What appeared in the heavens at Jesus’ birth was vastly greater than a church choir. The Word says it was a “great multitude of the heavenly host.” One can only imagine what the sky looked and sounded like: countless voices filling the earth and the sky. A host of voices praising God and glorifying Him from the depths of the heavens for the Child who was  King of Angels. Luke’s simple description fires the heart and imagination. What indescribable, ethereal   music  must have been pouring over the baby Jesus from the skies.

Does that not give one pause to wonder who it is we come to adore at Christmas? The angels’ joyful voices could not be contained in the heavens. On earth simple shepherds were   awestruck and fell in worship. Magi came from far off to find Messiah, the prophesied King of the Jews, bringing gifts for royalty.

It was a baby born that night in Bethlehem but it was God Incarnate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  It was the Sun of Righteousness with healing in His wings who will sit on the throne at the Father’s right hand. It is He to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given. It is the Lord Jesus who saves mankind from destruction and promises eternal Life. John says the small baby is the Word made flesh, the Light that came into the world and gives men life. He is Wonderful Counselor,  Prince of Peace, Almighty God. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end of all things.

Sometimes we forget  the power and majesty of whom we adore. Christmas can easily become wrapped up in sentiments like a pretty package under the tree rather than a jaw dropping, knee buckling time, fire in the soul worship. Jesus ‘ birth was His entry into a dark world and the beginning of mankind’s redemption. His birth led to the violence of the cross and then to the glory of an empty grave. His birth concludes with victory over death and the grave ; it becomes  the gift of eternal life for all who believe in Him. The baby wrapped in swaddling clothes for whom the angels sang in Bethlehem is the Lamb on the Throne in Revelation, worshiped forever and ever by the same great multitude of the heavenly host, crying Holy, Holy, Holy. As will we.

Christmas is about this one thing: the beginning of all our adoration of Jesus.

Venite adoremus.  Venite adoremus. Dominum. O come let us adore Him. Christ the Lord.