What if the Baby Jesus was Aborted?
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
A Wonderful Life, a Christmas classic, depicts the story of George Bailey, a man who contemplates suicide who ultimately rethinks his decision because he realizes that life has been good even though it didn’t turn out the way he imagined. The process that turns his thoughts around was a view of how the world would have been if he had never been born. What would the world look like if your existence was erased? While the movie uses a magical way of showing what that looks like, we are currently experiencing an attempt to erase the most important birth from the hearts and minds of people.
When God came to earth, He came through a virgin named Mary, who is engaged to be married. What a shock it was to her intended husband, Joseph, that she was pregnant. Fortunately, Mary and Joseph didn’t decide that Jesus was an inconvenient pregnancy. And yet, more than 2000 years later, the world wants to abort the Savior from His own birth celebration.
Why would the world want to erase Jesus from its memory and replace Him with a benign Santa Claus character? Because Jesus makes us uncomfortable and just messes up the happy celebration. He makes us decide between God and the comforts of culture. He makes us look into the depths of our being where we confront our sinfulness, the thoughts and behaviors that oppose God. Jesus alone lights the way to eternal life, otherwise, we choose eternal death. Uncomfortable?
On the other hand, the idea of Santa offers us soma pills, a way to relieve us from the stress of reality and its obvious brokenness. The Christmas season turns into a stretch of time that instead of reminding us of the remedy God has provided for our sin, turns our minds away to shopping, and dinner gatherings. And the thought of including the divisive Jesus to His own birthday celebration could spoil the harmony of the season. Consequently, a marketing plan to smooth everything over can make the season bright.
What if the future could rewrite history without the birth of Jesus, like an aborted baby who never existed? If the world never had a Savior born to us, we would not have the hope of a future to mention. If we could witness the world without the birth of a Savior, we would have second thoughts about His relevance. There is no magic solution to get people to realize the need for Jesus, like George in A Wonderful Life saw the purpose of his life. However, the gospel of Jesus simply emphasizes that we are sinners in need of a Savior to pay for our sins. When the individual heart realizes our need for a Savior, she gladly welcomes Jesus to the birthday party.
