The Bible is faithful to tell us what has come to pass. It, in turn, rightly also tells us what will come to pass. Our faith can faithfully be summarized with these three affirmations, two historical, one future- Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. What the Bible doesn’t tell us is what might have been. What if Adam and Eve had not eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? What if Boaz had not wakened on the threshing room floor? What if Judas’ remorse had come when he was merely thinking of betraying Jesus, and he had stopped short? The Bible doesn’t say.
Hollywood, on the other hand, is not so averse to showing us what might have been. Movies have been made about a world where Germany won the war, or the south defeated the Yankees. No movie better captured the “what if” however than It’s a Wonderful Life. George Bailey is given the blessing of seeing how his own life, however hard it may have been, was a blessing to all around him. Working families without homes, a druggist guilty of manslaughter, even a whole troop ship lost in the war were just a few of the ripples flowing from a world without George Bailey. We walk away from the story, I pray, more grateful both for the lives that have touched our own, and for the beauty and grace of the providence of God.
The problem, as with so much that is so delightful about the advent season, is that in giving thanks for this, we miss giving thanks for that. The glory of God’s providence isn’t ultimately that God allows us to minister to and bless each other. The wonder isn’t that our lives are wonderful, but is in the life of Him whom we call Wonderful. The ripples that began in a manger become that tsunami whereby the kingdom of God covers the world as the waters cover the sea.
And that is the very story of history, the mother of all drama. World wide wars, epidemics, the rise and fall of nations, the destruction of Pompeii, economic collapse, all these are but shadows of the real story, the conquest of every principality and power by that babe who was born in a stable in a podunk town, in the middle of a bureaucratic hassle.
The reason we remember the five evangelical feast days (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension and Pentecost) is so that we never lose sight of where our story is going. Christmas isn’t something that happened while the world was going on its way. It is instead the very way of the world. The world was made for Christmas, not the other way around. The life of the world is the wonderful life of our Lord. It began when He sang it into being. Drama came with the fall that He ordained. The promise sustained His people. And then, in the fullness of time, a hero was born. He grew in wisdom and stature, and took the weight of the sins of His people upon Himself. The Great and Terrible Father breathed the very fires of hell on His own Son.
Because, however, the Hero was an innocent man, death could not hold Him. He walked out of His tomb, setting the world aright. From there He rose once again, this time to a throne, where He rules heaven and earth. From there He sent His Spirit, to give birth to a people, to sanctify a bride, to conquer all His and our enemies. This is our story, because it is His story, and we are His. What might have been, had He not been born, that is not a bit of Capra-esque entertainment, but a nightmare we need not imagine. Because He was born.