Writing & Photography by David K. Carpenter posted: " Christmas is the culmination of God's plan to liberate us from the clutches of evil. A modern-day analogy of this event is known as D-Day--the date upon which the Allied forces launched their daring assault on Hitler's "fortress Europe". One characterist" Master's Canvas - Writing & Photography by David K. Carpenter
Christmas is the culmination of God's plan to liberate us from the clutches of evil. A modern-day analogy of this event is known as D-Day--the date upon which the Allied forces launched their daring assault on Hitler's "fortress Europe". One characteristic of that invasion was that it did not look like what the forces of evil expected, which is at least part of the reason why it succeeded.
In the same way, who would have expected God to land on Earth in the form of a newborn baby? Satan certainly did not. After all, what chance did a helpless baby have against the mighty fallen angel? Not much, really.
Helping the Helpless God
Except it turned out that Jesus wasn't helpless, after all. God put people in place to protect Him until He could protect Himself. God gave Him human parents--the most ferocious representatives of human love--who obeyed the strange dream God had given them, moving to Egypt (and away from everything and everyone they knew) to protect Jesus from Satan's / Herod's deranged plan to kill all the baby boys in Israel. God sent kings who were humble enough to obey God rather than the ruler of the land, deciding to take the long way home to avoid revealing Jesus' whereabouts.
Who would have thought we mere humans could help God? Since He is God and can do anything, He doesn't need our help. But He wants it. He wants us to help Him by helping others. And by so doing, we end up helping ourselves as well.
Beginning of the End
Back to the invasion story. Even though June 6, 1944, marks the beginning of the invasion, the full invasion was not completed until the end of August 1944, when the Battle of Normandy was won. Similarly, Christmas marks the beginning of God's invasion of Earth, but it was not really completed until Easter 33 years later, when Jesus rose from the dead, crushing sin and death and Satan.
But If Jesus Defeated Satan, Why Is There Still Evil in the World?
Even though the D-Day invasion marked the beginning of the end of World War II, it didn't actually end until May 8, 1945, more than 11 months later. Why? Because evil was not going to give up without a fight. Sadly, tens of thousands of people died during those 11 months.
So why is there still evil in the world, even though Jesus' resurrection marked the beginning of the end of the war between good and evil? Because Satan is not going to give up without a fight, and he wants to take you and me and millions of others with him when he goes.
The Choice to Live
Thankfully, we don't have to let that happen to us. We have the choice to be spared, unlike those who perished during the final 11 months of WWII.
How can we choose to be spared?
All we have to do is look to the Baby Boy born on Christmas, who is God with Us. And upon realizing that He will become the man who dies on a cross to take the punishment for our sins, we fall on our knees in worship and gratitude. Even better, we rise with Him three days after His execution, following Him through His resurrection into paradise, which will be our address for eternity.
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