God Unswaddled – Preparing for the Season of the White Horse

You know how when you’ve been married for a long time, there are some arguments that feel like déjà vu.

When those arguments begin, you want to just say “Haven’t we had this one before? Can we just cut to the chase on this one this time?”

That’s how I feel about the Christmas season this year.

‘Tis the season for offense.

What will bother believers this year? Will it be the commercialism or the way we’re greeted by sales clerks? Will it be the rising attention given to Muslim holidays at the White House and the diminishing integrity of attention to Christmas?

I say lets skip it this year.

Skip the debates. Skip the offenses. Let everyone greet you any way they want. Before you lecture that pimple faced kid in a Walmart apron about the real reason for the season, ask yourself if you’ve ever concerned yourself for five minutes about the state of his soul.

Let’s choose a real message to deliver this Christmas season.

Here’s the one I’m choosing “You should worry less about how we remember His first coming and spend more time preparing for His next arrival.”

 That one’s going to be a doozy and the cards will not be pretty.

In October, TV comedians John Stewart and Stephen Colbert held their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It was amusing to hear many of the speeches and I listened good-naturedly until John Stewart made this proclamation “We live in hard times, not End Times!” This pronouncement received a riotous cheer of support.

It didn’t offend me – it frightened me for those who took his words to heart. And it reminded me how important it is for us to deliver the whole message of Jesus Christ.

I know it’s been a long time waiting for Him to come again but I bet that’s how it was the first time, too.

You have to imagine that by the time Mary received the announcement that she was carrying God’s son, there were popular rabbis teaching that the Messiah referred to in the scriptures was, perhaps, a metaphor calling each of us to save our portion of the world. There were many who were tired of waiting when Jesus finally arrived the first time.

Did you ever notice the preponderance of Mary’s in the New Testament? It was a very popular name for little girls in Israel back then. It means “bitter or bitterness”. It may as well mean “We’re tired of waiting for you to save us God. Maybe we should try to save ourselves.”

And there were groups of Jews trying to do that. The Zealots believed in rising up against their oppressors and fighting Rome for freedom. One of the twelve disciples, Simon, was a Zealot. He was probably not popular with his cohorts when he announced that the actual Messiah had come so he was done with swords and conspiracies against Rome.

He had a greater task.

But that’s exactly how I feel right now. So, I’ve decided to spend my devotional time this season studying the scriptures that speak, not of His first coming, but of His second – His return.

I don’t know when He’s coming again. I don’t know if we are in THE end times. But I do know that every generation is closer to the end than the last.

I also know that the admonition to “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” was not just about receiving a swaddled baby into the world as the King Eternal. That baby grew up, lived, died, and rose again. That baby is all grown up now, ascended and standing beside the Father awaiting the time when He returns to call His followers home and to judge the inhabitants of earth.

Revelation 19:11-16 says this: “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.”He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”

That’s no swaddled baby in a manger. That’s the Jesus who is coming again – just as He promised.

Don’t worry about whether or not you’re prepared for this Christmas season – worry whether or not you’re prepared for the season to come – the End of the Age and the return of Jesus Christ.


Put THAT message on your Christmas card and mail it, loved ones. Are you ready for God unswaddled?

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