or to us a child is born, to us a son is given, …. And he
will be called Wonderful Counselor… .(Isaiah 9.6)
Seven centuries before the event, God revealed to his people that
a child would be born to them, who would be a gift to the world,
and would be a wonderful counsellor. We celebrate the coming of
that child into the world every Christmas.
He is not someone who counsels wonderful advice. Rather "wonderful"
means supernatural, or out of the ordinary, or mysterious; it
is something we could not have thought of ourselves. Paul writes
of "the mystery of Christ" in Ephesians 3.4, meaning
the Gospel as brought and revealed in the Person of Christ, and
as made effective by him, which is the same as Wonderful Counsellor
means in the verse from Isaiah that was prophesied so long before
his coming.
This child that God was going to give to the world would grow
to be no ordinary man, nor would his counsel, or plan, for the
world be ordinary. He would have solutions to the world's problems
no one would have thought of in their farthest thoughts, or dared
to have imagined possible in their wildest dreams. Everything
about Christ was wonderful in this sense, not the least his birth.
Who would have guessed that God himself would become a man, and
grace our planet with his presence, or grace our humanity with
his divinity? Could it ever be possible-"the infinite contracted
to a span"? God had promised a decisive breaking into the
earth's history, when his kingdom would be established on earth,
but nobody expected him to come as a man to do it. Yet this is
precisely what he did. It is too much for some to believe, and
who could believe it if God himself had not said that it was so?
God sent his only Son into the world, not as a prince or a man
of importance in religious circles, but as a humble carpenter
in an out of the way place. Nor did he come fully grown into the
world, but he was born of a woman, and knew all the weakness and
vulnerability of being a baby, then a toddler and a boy. Who but
our God would have planned this ?
The wonder goes deeper. He was born of a virgin. In an age when
we think we know how cells reproduce, and terms like DNA and Molecular
Genetics float around in our consciousness, we may have lost the
sense of the wonder of this, but it was a supernatural birth,
and the only way in which God could accomplish the birth of his
son into the world. He had no earthly father, for God himself
was the Father of Christ.
Wonder filled the air the whole of the nine month's of his mother's
pregnancy. Prophecy and holy joy marked those days, and angels
visited his family. Finally when the day came for him to be born,
the angels crowded the skies, singing like they hadn't done since
the creation of the world; and why shouldn't they? God was doing
a wonderful thing.
Those with eyes to see caught the sense of it, and rejoiced in
the birth of the child. The shepherds glorified and praised God
for everything they had heard and seen. Mary treasured up every
word and sight and sound in her heart. Simeon and Anna praised
God to be able to have seen the promised child. The Magi followed
the star from the East and worshipped; and Joseph met an angel
and led the child and his mother to safety, and back home again.
God's great purpose does not stop at Christ's birth, for there
was a reason for him coming into the world that was wonderful.
Christ's death had a purpose that no-one could have guessed had
it not been revealed by God himself. In the event, it had no purpose
to human eyes, just the waste of a good life, ending in a cruel
tragedy. The ugliness of his death contrasts starkly with the
beauty and joy of his birth. The soldiers' curses and brutality,
the vitriolic mockery of the religious establishment, the abandonment
by loved ones, and his utter rejection by God are all opposites
of the love and tender care lavished on him at his birth.
This tragedy to human eyes was a wonder of counsel of God. "For
God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself" - on
the cross. The Son of God redeems his people and brings the Kingdom
of God to earth by dying on a cross. This gospel of Christ's redeeming
love is wonderful. Who would have thought it? Sinners are raised
from death in their sins and trespasses, endowed with eternal
life, given the Spirit of God and made children of God, all through
a death on a cross. We would not have planned it that way, for
our counsel is not that of God. Our thoughts are not his thoughts,
nor are his thoughts our thoughts.
The counsel of God that started in God's plan before the world
began, was made visible at the birth of Christ and sealed at his
death, will be made glorious at his coming again. Wonder has not
gone from this world, but is biding God's time when it will be
revealed in its fullness, when Christ will come from heaven with
the clouds of glory and will rule the new heavens and new earth.
What that will be like none can guess, for God has not chosen
to reveal his plan in detail for then.
Christmas reminds us of one aspect of God's counsel of wonder
in sending his Son into the world. It is a time to reflect on
the wonderful counsel of God in sending his Only Begotten in to
the world. It is a time to renew our worship of God, and to renew
our love of Christ. Let us worship the God we can never fully
understand, but who has revealed himself to us. "
