The Red of Christmas
Red ribbon, bows. Red peppermints. Red blood. Red hate. Red of Christmas.
We often forget the blood that came with the Christmas story as well--the slaughter of the children that Matthew records. The red of Herod's hate and fear that poured out in the streets, mingling with tears, life blood mixing with the trash on the street. Souls expendable for the sake of power. We often forget this red-cloaked story; it doesn't belong in our renditions. It doesn't belong. Really. It is not the way the world was meant to be, with the horror of the slaughtering of children, genocide, slavery, sex trafficking, abuse, domestic violence, cancer, anxiety, addiction, aging, hospice, death, grief... It doesn't belong in this world.
Do not close your hearts to the horror, to the red that still flows around the world this Christmas. The Lord would not close his, but instead sent his Son into this blood-red world. It is in this world that the Savior stepped into, it is in this type of world that He came to save. The Innocent One was born into a world of hate, fear, slaughter, death. The most glorious and worthy, the Father's own treasured Son, came to give his life to save souls that others expend. The wonder of his coming amidst the dark blood-red horror.
There is another red of Christmas that the apostle John saw:
This red dragon was present, too, in the Christmas story. The red line of his story begins in Genesis, from the red of death that enters the Garden to the murdering of Abel to the massacre of the Egyptian babies, attempted genocide of Hamaan, to Herod's slaughter, this red dragon had always been at work, warring against God's people and trying to extinguish the line of the Messiah. His red claws preys and capitalizes on the evil in the beating red hearts of men, creating structures of evil and injustice. His red evil undergirds, silently, subtly, shiningly, pervasively, all of the world.
But the red of Christmas is part of the red of Calvary. Red blood and red dawn of resurrection conquered the red dragon. Christ's birth and death gives us new life, new hope, a breaking pure dawn in this redbloody world. We have a new heart--not to be closed off to the blood flow of this world, but to beat with his love, his blood, his passion. We have a new voice to speak up, cry out against the red blood, for the tears of Rachel that still flow today. For the mothers whose hearts are so cold they sell their children, for the perverted relationships, for the grief and death, for the violence. We are tempted to close our hearts, stop the red flow of passion and pain and love in light of such red evils. Yet, we are less alive when we do so. We are given new hearts, filled with the red blood of Christ himself, not to ease the pain of this world. Rather, our hearts are now of flesh rather than of stone, and are softer to the pains of the world. We have Christ's eyes and hearts not to grieve less, but to grieve more, and to move us to passionate pleas to the very One who can save, who did not ignore the blood of infants of that first Christmas. May we be fervently in love with our Savior, with his red blood passion, and be fervently alive to him, as he gives us new life with his life!
NOTES
Thanks to my friend Cheryl who brought the idea of a red dragon at Christmas to mind by passing on this post: http://gowinfamily.com/2010/12/20/put-a-red-dragon-in-your-nativity-scene/
We often forget the blood that came with the Christmas story as well--the slaughter of the children that Matthew records. The red of Herod's hate and fear that poured out in the streets, mingling with tears, life blood mixing with the trash on the street. Souls expendable for the sake of power. We often forget this red-cloaked story; it doesn't belong in our renditions. It doesn't belong. Really. It is not the way the world was meant to be, with the horror of the slaughtering of children, genocide, slavery, sex trafficking, abuse, domestic violence, cancer, anxiety, addiction, aging, hospice, death, grief... It doesn't belong in this world.
Do not close your hearts to the horror, to the red that still flows around the world this Christmas. The Lord would not close his, but instead sent his Son into this blood-red world. It is in this world that the Savior stepped into, it is in this type of world that He came to save. The Innocent One was born into a world of hate, fear, slaughter, death. The most glorious and worthy, the Father's own treasured Son, came to give his life to save souls that others expend. The wonder of his coming amidst the dark blood-red horror.
There is another red of Christmas that the apostle John saw:
"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with
the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.
She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving
birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with
seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. His tail swept down
a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood
before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child
he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the
nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his
throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared
by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days" (Revelation 12:1-6).
This red dragon was present, too, in the Christmas story. The red line of his story begins in Genesis, from the red of death that enters the Garden to the murdering of Abel to the massacre of the Egyptian babies, attempted genocide of Hamaan, to Herod's slaughter, this red dragon had always been at work, warring against God's people and trying to extinguish the line of the Messiah. His red claws preys and capitalizes on the evil in the beating red hearts of men, creating structures of evil and injustice. His red evil undergirds, silently, subtly, shiningly, pervasively, all of the world.
But the red of Christmas is part of the red of Calvary. Red blood and red dawn of resurrection conquered the red dragon. Christ's birth and death gives us new life, new hope, a breaking pure dawn in this redbloody world. We have a new heart--not to be closed off to the blood flow of this world, but to beat with his love, his blood, his passion. We have a new voice to speak up, cry out against the red blood, for the tears of Rachel that still flow today. For the mothers whose hearts are so cold they sell their children, for the perverted relationships, for the grief and death, for the violence. We are tempted to close our hearts, stop the red flow of passion and pain and love in light of such red evils. Yet, we are less alive when we do so. We are given new hearts, filled with the red blood of Christ himself, not to ease the pain of this world. Rather, our hearts are now of flesh rather than of stone, and are softer to the pains of the world. We have Christ's eyes and hearts not to grieve less, but to grieve more, and to move us to passionate pleas to the very One who can save, who did not ignore the blood of infants of that first Christmas. May we be fervently in love with our Savior, with his red blood passion, and be fervently alive to him, as he gives us new life with his life!
NOTES
Thanks to my friend Cheryl who brought the idea of a red dragon at Christmas to mind by passing on this post: http://gowinfamily.com/2010/12/20/put-a-red-dragon-in-your-nativity-scene/
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