Advent Reflections: A Christmas Allegory of Love

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.” – John 3:16-17, NKJV

Many would argue that the cross is the greatest act of love in human history. And while there are many reasons I would agree to that statement, I want to take a different approach and present Christ’s birth as the greatest act of love.

A Perfect Kingdom and a New Creation

Imagine a perfect kingdom, where every being goes about their days doing the job they love and serving a king who is all goodness and mercy. This kingdom is prosperous, there is peace in every home and everyone there lives, breathes and acts like royalty in every task they set out to do.

The heir to this kingdom lives with his father and happily rules alongside him. One day, the king, queen, and son decide to set about establishing a new kingdom full of wonders and new creations.  They choose among themselves to make humanity and set them as the stewards of this new world. The chief goal in their mind is to have humanity establish the same kind of kingdom in this new world as the kingdom where this royal family lives.

And yet, the king doesn’t want a world of slaves who are given no choice but to serve. Rather, he wants a kingdom of people given the choice to love and serve their king. For, after all, no love can be true unless it was freely chosen and given. And so the king, queen, and prince decide to give humanity the gift of free will. They are created in love, placed in a perfect world, and given a choice to serve the king and establish his kingdom on this new world.

The Foresight of Failure

But what if? What if, when given this choice to love and serve, humanity should choose their own way? What if they should betray the king, the queen, the prince, and everything they stood for? A solution must be made.

The king, being good and merciful, knows that he would never abandon his creation made with so much intentionality. The queen with her loving-kindness and strong wisdom agrees she would do anything to restore any broken creation. And the prince, who has lived his entire life in devotion to his father acknowledges that any new creation born in love must not be left without a solution should they fail in their task.

The prince knows that the wrath of the king must be appeased if humanity should break all of his father’s laws. He knows that, if humanity fell and chose their own way, the only way to restore them would be to have another human intercede on their behalf. And even greater than this, the only acceptable restitution would be a perfect man, unblemished by humanity’s rebellion yet still understanding of their plight. The prince understands the cost before the solution is even brought about.

The Prince’s Agreement

Soon an agreement is made. In the golden rooms overlooking a perfect kingdom, the king, queen, and prince decide that should humanity fail, the prince would sojourn to this distant land, leave behind his life as heir, and become a servant to his creation with the sole mission of pointing them back to the love of his father.

The prince agrees to leave behind his glory, status, and wealth, all to become a human himself and eventually, give his life up as the satisfaction for creation’s failing. The heir himself would give himself up to restore any and all who would choose to serve the king freely and live in devotion to him.

Arrival in a Manger

And so the prince leaves his land, and arrives in the new world as a baby. Small, helpless, defenseless and pitifully powerless as a newborn, the prince arrives on Christmas in a dusty manger smelling of sheep and horses.

His path is set before him. He chose it out of love before the foundation of the world and the creation of humanity. He chose his path knowing full well all the failings and hurts that humanity would inflict against his father. His course was set. Not even the sight of the cross on the horizon would deter the heir from fulfilling his role and earning for his father a people who would live and die out of love freely given in service to their king.

The Love of the Prince

Greater love has no man than this. That a man lay down his life for his friends. The prince did it. He did it for you and for me and during Christmas we celebrate the fact that while we were yet sinners, he died for us taking our place and fulfilling our debts against the king. The prince, fully knowing that humanity would fail, still agreed to the cross before the foundation of the earth. He knew the cost, and he willingly paid it.

The prince, after fulfilling his role to provide a way back to the king and after fulfilling humanity’s debts, earned an everlasting kingdom and his father granted him the place of highest honor and glory. He was given the inheritance of this world and all of its creation. The way for redemption was laid, and humanity was on its way to restoring it through the prince’s power and authority. The prince left to return victorious to his father’s house, with a promise to one day come back and claim his throne on earth.

The Real Love Behind Christmas

That is what we celebrate during Christmas. We celebrate this all-consuming, ever-passionate love. We celebrate that the father loved us enough to send his son. We celebrate that the son loved us enough to agree to redeem us. We celebrate that the queen agreed to keep working in us until the son should permanently return to his kingdom.

On Christmas, we celebrate this kind of love. And with joy we give our lives in love to this prince, because he first loved us.

Reflection

Have you experienced this love? If you have not, Christ came so that you could. All you have to do is ask for it and believe that you’ll receive it. After all, how could we not respond with love to a prince, and a king, who would redeem us knowing full well we would fail? As we celebrate Christmas, may you be filled with the knowledge of the great love that Christ has for you and may you encounter his presence like never before.

“Truly He taught us to love one another;
His law is love and His gospel is peace.”

Merry Christmas!
Anna

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Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash