“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God...Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people” (Revelations 21:2-3).

A few weeks ago, my youngest son was playing with his construction toys and built a flying tank.  His older brothers made fun of him, insisting that flying tanks are impossible.  Being the good father that I am, I intervened by showing the boys a clip from the A-Team movie where the band of misfit mercenaries in fact do fly a tank.  As Hannibal, the leader of the A-Team famously says, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

This week we’re connecting verses from Revelation, the last book in the New Testament, to the Christmas story that’s told in the first books, Matthew and Luke. What connects the joyous celebration of the birth of Jesus, with the foretelling of New Jerusalem?

What do these two things have in common? What we’re seeing is how God’s plan is coming together.  Throughout the entire Bible, God has made the impossible possible.  Jesus coming to us both wholly divine and human, to live with us, suffer for our sins, and die for us was part of his plan.  Jesus conquering death was part of his plan.  Now we’re seeing in Revelation what started that night in Bethlehem brought to completion.

God’s plan is to live with us through the ultimate unification of a “new heaven and a new earth”.  Revelation tells us that the first earth will pass away, and God will then dwell among us.  The Christmas season is a time where we can renew our focus on Jesus. Jesus pointed the way forward for us, and his Spirit continues to guide us down that path.  In this Spirit, especially around the holidays, we may feel more charitable, donating more time, money, food, or other things to those less fortunate.   But God’s plan isn’t just about celebrating Jesus during Christmas. It’s about going down a path led by Jesus into this new eternity.  

Giving to a charity, volunteering at a food bank, or donating unused coats to help clothe someone in need are all wonderful acts.  But we can live now as if our communities were in the process of becoming the city spoken about in Revelation. When we commit to making these good works part of who we are all year, and not just ‘seasonal’, we are taking steps down the path Jesus has shown us, towards making our communities more like the City of God.

God loves seeing His plan come together, and He especially loves it when we choose to make ourselves a part of it!  

Pick one way this season that you can put extra emphasis on how Jesus taught us to live, such as clothing the poor or feeding the hungry, that helps prepare the path.  Then make that a now and forever action that you carry forward all year long.

To read or re-read the overview/summary of this week’s passage, you can click here.