The Christmas Thaw

Pastor Randy Corbin, Transitional Lead Pastor

For three years, Linda and I lived through the winters of Minnesota.

It was not the snow that I remember as much as the cold.  The snows would come often but only a few inches at a time, yet the snow would never melt.  So by February, the ice and snow was packed and piled significantly.

The cold had an unrelenting grip. There were often days without the temperature reaching 0 degrees Fahrenheit, requiring me to get up multiple times in the night to start our car or the engine wouldn’t budge in the morning.  The highways were snow and ice covered continually, refusing to yield even to heavy doses of salt.  The lakes were frozen so solidly that vehicles of all types would drive and play on the surfaces.

Walking across the wintry, windy campus of Bethel Seminary, I yearned for the long-awaited spring to break the icy hold.  The ice, the snow, and the cold was distracting and hampering – and at times most uncomfortable.  During those winter days of December, January and February, it seemed that we would be forever caught in the prison of this day in and day out frigid icebox. 

And, then the spring would come – subtly at first.  The temperature would slowly inch upward and the thaw would smash the grip of the brutal winter.  Oh, we would still have some cold nights and an occasional snow, but we had the certain promise of spring.  The thaw had arrived and spring and new life was on its way!

Two thousand years ago the world was caught in the hopeless grip of sin.  Mankind and indeed all the earth was trapped in an icy winter of sin and its effects.  Men and women and their world around them were condemned to an eternal winter of evil, depravity, and corruption.  Humankind and all of creation longed for release – for One who would come to crack the curse and bring the spring of redemption.

It was the cry of the hearts of the world:
 Come Thou long-expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Come Thou long-awaited Emmanuel. 
It was the cry of creation:
         “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:19-21)

And so, God in His infinite love and mercy sent a Redeemer, His Son, Jesus, to set mankind and all creation free from such bondage and decay so that we might become the creatures and creation God had intended us to be.

Oh indeed!  Free from sin, from self, from satan!  Free to serve our God!  Free to be holy!  Free to be beautiful and lush!

No, we are not all the way there yet, but we are on our way toward the likeness of true sons of God.  And, creation is heading toward its own redemption when God will re-dress it as a New Heaven and a New Earth – like it originally was at creation.

And, all this is because of that great “Christmas thaw” that occurred in a stable stall long ago when Jesus was born.  Emmanuel God came to ransom the captive!

So, how can we, the redeemed, do anything less than rejoice greatly during this Advent season?

Joy to the world!
Joy to the earth!  Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy!
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground.
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found, far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found!

Brothers, sisters, let us lift our hearts in praise to our Redeemer during this Advent.  The grip of sin is broken and the thaw has come!  Full redemption for us and for the world is on its way!

Hallelujah!  And, He shall reign for ever and ever…and, so shall we!  All, because of the great “Christmas thaw!”