The Story Is Just Beginning

What can we learn the day after Christmas? Let’s plunge into the Deeper Waters and find out.

Those who know my PhD study area is on video games and Christianity might be shocked to learn that in many ways, video games are secondary to the study. What is primary is studying stories. Not stories as in particular stories, but in general. What makes a story a story and why are we drawn to them?

Christmas is a story, but it is also a true story. While we celebrate the day, let’s remember that on that day, a war started. The forces of evil decided to do whatever they could to prevent the mission of the Son of God in the world. Jesus is the greatest protagonist of all time, but at the start of the story, He was dependent on His parents.

Sure. An angel could have whisked him and them somewhere safe to escape Herod, but that didn’t happen. An angel instead just told Joseph to run to Egypt. The responsibility was on Joseph to lead his family. Like it or not, Joseph was caught up in a cosmic battle at that point. He was a player in a far greater story than we can imagine.

Not only that, but the story is going on today. Remember how the book of Acts starts? It starts after the resurrection of Jesus and right before the ascension. What does it cover? Everything Jesus BEGAN to do and teach. In other words, the story is still the story of Jesus ongoing and we are playing a part in it.

As long as the return of Christ hasn’t happened, we are still in that story. The story continues past Easter up into the present. You and I are caught up in that battle still between good and evil and we have to choose with every action that we do which side we will serve.

Many of us might think we don’t play a significant role in the story, but actually, we do to some extent. Every one of us is shaping everyone around us and preparing the next generation. What can be a small move can actually have grand repercussions down the line that we cannot even fathom.

Yet we are told to play our part in this. Even in the coming of Jesus, ordinary human beings were counted on to make sure that Jesus’s mission went according to plan. Jesus also picked ordinary humans. He has to. There aren’t any others available.

I wrote an article when Final Fantasy XV came out and I started playing it. In this one, I noted that you go through a city, and people are going about their daily lives. You can hear the background chatter when you walk through places with a lot of people. Leave the city and soldiers from the empire randomly airdrop on you and your party in an attempt to eliminate you and you have to fight for your lives.

I think that’s where we are. Most of the world is engaged in day-to-day matters and are not aware that there is a war going on. They are then taken unaware by the enemy. We do know that there is a war going on. We also are told that we are to fight in this war.

Christmas is one of the major turning points in the story. The book of Acts is still going on. The book ends saying the gospel reached across the world unhindered. It is still reaching today. That’s not up to angels still. It’s up to you and I.

Let’s do it.

In Christ,
Nick Peters
(And I affirm the virgin birth)

 

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