Dear Friends:
Years ago, when house-hunting in the Nashville area, the real estate agent pointed out a beautiful, blood-red brick antebellum home, complete with striking white columns, acres of rolling hills, and surrounded by pre-Civil war era stone walls. “That home is known as, “Glimpse of Glory,” my lovely Southern connoisseur of homes exclaimed with delight, as we approached the beautiful estate from around the bend. “Isn’t it, Ju-u-st ‘gaw-jus?”
Yes, “Gaw-jus,” it was, and still is. It was aptly named after a southern gentleman’s idea of what a mansion in heaven should look like, at least through his eyes. The phrase, Glimpse of Glory, has stayed with me over these many years, and for reasons unknown to me at this time, I find myself applying, Glimpse of Glory to the birth of Jesus this Christmas season.
And isn’t Christmas just that: an incredible peek into Glory for the earth-bound skeptics that we are? Isn’t Christmas a sneak-preview into our heavenly mansions, where the “striking white columns,” may instead be gilded with gold? Christmas is not only about the birth of Jesus; it is also about our own personal, Glimpse into Glory, where we will be whole and perfect and like Jesus, and someday reunited with loved ones who have preceded us there.
On that first Christmas, the shepherds followed an unusually bright and glorious star that guided them directly to where the Christ Child lay in a manger, and witnessed first hand, their own Glimpse ofGlory. Kings followed the same star to where the holy baby lay, bestowing gifts at his feet and falling to their knees to worship the Glimpse of Glory before them.
Yet, for many, this Christmas season life feels very hard. We deal with pain, hardship, and difficult challenges that threaten the stability in our lives, to say nothing of experiencing a lack of funds to buy gifts for loved ones, or even groceries for Christmas dinner. Some ask if the untimely death of a beloved spouse, son or daughter, sister or brother, parent, or friend, a “Glimpse of Glory?” It sure doesn’t feel like it, does it? Some might say, “If this life is a glimpse of glory, I’ll just pass on the “religion-thing.” How are we supposed to enjoy Christmas with so much sadness and discourse in our lives, and in the world as a whole?
This Christmas season, we definitely need a Glimpse of Glory. God set aside His Glory so that He could come into this sin-stained world to identify completely with mankind and become Savior to those who believe. Christmas is an incredible moment in time where we catch a glimpse into heaven and of the Glory of God, so that we can remember that today’s hardships are not all there is in this world. Christmas offers us the opportunity to focus on the incredible gift God gave to us on that first Christmas morning: the ordinary, and often difficult circumstances of daily life in Bethlehem, coupled with the extraordinary coming of God in human form. Christmas reminds us to celebrate with a thankful heart, no matter what our personal circumstances may be. Jesus said, “I am Christ in you, the hope of glory;” or loosely translated, your personal, “Glimpse of Glory!” Isn’t that, “Ju-u-st gaw-jus?”
