I observe that atheism, agnosticism, and “unbelief” in general is based in disappointment.  In almost every conversation I have ever been in with an “unbeliever” I find the most common explanation for NOT believing in God runs along the line of, “If there really were a God there would NOT be ..” followed by a complaint: There would be no “pain,” “sickness,” “war,” “babies suffering,” and even “death” itself. While these sad things are offered as evidence of there being no Loving God, folks do not seem to ask themselves, “From where does my outrage spring?” If life is an accident, and we all are here due to an improbable series of genetic luck, then there is no injustice, there is no tragedy.

I often share with my unbelieving friends that it is only because there is a Loving God that we experience a sense of “just” or “unjust”.  We mourn someone dying because in the depths of our being we know that death should not be. God created humans to have Eternal Life, and it is only because of sin let loose in the universe that death even happens to us. The “complainers” in fact agree with God!

God hates injustice; God hates death; God hates sin, that we are oppressed, victimized and imprisoned by it, and that we cannot visually see Him because of it. If God is so loving and kind, why doesn’t He just “fix it”? Peter explains this (2 Peter 3:4-9). God is not slow, nor inattentive, God is “patient … not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”

God hates the condition of our world more than we do. He sent His Son Jesus to drink from the cup of suffering and provide a way to Life. God holds off on ushering in the Final Day so that more, even more, might be rescued from the ravaging blight.

Christmas is Christmas only because all the rest is true. The Cross, the resurrection, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and our Hope in what God intended for us from the beginning – eternal joy-filled fellowship with Him.  That is Christmas.

– Rev. Joel Davis, Executive Director