For all who wait
For all who hunger
For all who’ve prayed
For all who wonder
Behold…
Christmas is composed of a story. A true and eternal story. Of true “Joy to the World”.
The word behold comes from Old English to “hold in view” or “keep in sight,” literally keeping something in your gaze, observing something significant. It is often used to call attention to something wonderful or surprising, like in the phrase “Lo and behold!”
So, let us pause and behold the story of Christmas. It is the story that illuminates the desires and waiting of hundreds of years for a true Savior. The story then centers on the fulfillment of the coming of a savior 2000 years ago. Finally, this story will climax in the final chapter, where there will come a Savior who is also King. Like the shepherds, we are wise in this season to lift up our heads to muse upon these three chapters of this story that is our story as humans on this Earth.
The first chapter of the trilogy is when the creative words of God, “Let there be light,” were spoken. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1). This world, where we live right now, was created by Light. It’s human nature not see the holy and the divine. The divine is what we are made from, yet we tend not to notice the holiness of the realm in which we live. We do life here without realizing that we’re in a story – the greatest story. If we don’t see, then a life of meaning that we long for is not available to us. C.S. Lewis wrote, “I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.” We must see that the Christmas story is our lens to understand the meaning of our lives here on Earth.
In 2025, we are in the second chapter of the trilogy. After almost 400 years of God silence from the Old Testament to the New, the second part of the trilogy emerged. Light breaking in a stable. The world that the God of Light created is now where the story of Light in human form appears. This Light came to fill our void by creating a relationship between Himself and His people.
In the final act of the trilogy, The Light of the World will physically return to take His own to be with Him forever. In the third chapter, the light is represented by the Lamb in the new Heaven where there is no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb (Revelation 21:23).
The Christmas story is real. Not just a holiday story. It transcends this Earth. And the middle story, which is ours, is where we wait, not for the initial promise of the Messiah to come, for that has already occurred. We wait like Anna and Simeon. We wait for the promise of His return. And it’s at Christmas time we take a moment from the things temporal and look up, like the shepherds, to see that we are in a story encompassing more than just our earthly lives here. We wait and hope for His coming again, like those of old, who, when they held the baby Jesus in their arms, knew that longing had become fulfillment. Let us behold Him this season, truly see this baby grown into a man who exchanged His heavenly body for one like ours. And may we know that the longings for all things true, honest, just, pure, lovely, worthy to be mentioned, virtuous, and praiseworthy will one day be fulfilled in the third chapter of this wondrous story that we’re in.
Christmas brings divine meaning to our world. May we know the meaning of the words of the Christmas carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem, “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” The hopes and fears of years past, present, and future – all written about in a story that is OUR story because of HIS story. May this wonder be ours this season. In light, we see light.
Dawn Custalow is an EL educator and teaches students who do not speak English as their first language. She currently works at William Fleming high school in Roanoke. She enjoys writing as well as public speaking on themes of education, cultural training, and Virginia Indian history – both past and present. Dawn is an alum of VA Tech and an enrolled tribal member of the Mattaponi Indian reservation in West Point, Virginia.
