"But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons." Galatians 4:4
God's timing is perfect.
I must have heard that phrase a million times in my life. So often, in fact, that I almost never think about the ramifications of what it means. I just hear it, accept it, and move on.
But Christmas makes that phrase worth thinking about - especially in light of what led up to that first Christmas.
Long before there was Christmas (Jesus coming to earth), the ancients heard the voice of God through His prophets in various ways and degrees. The prophets communicated the heart of God - His justice, mercy, truth, anger, compassion, holiness and love. Everyone knew the world was broken, and that people were broken, and they longed for God to enter into the fray and bring some sense to the senseless world they lived in. Well, God promised that He would do that very thing.
Through the prophets, God expressed to humanity that He had not forgotten them. He told people that there was coming a Savior, a Redeemer, a King in fact. Imagine the joy of people to know that God was sending a king to be the glory of Israel and a light to the non-Jewish world. Problem was, there came a time when the prophets just stopped talking because God wasn't really communicating through them on a large scale. In fact, there were 400 years of silence from the prophets on a large scale. 400 years. That is nearly 170 years LONGER than the United States of America has been a country. So, how would you have felt if you lived in that time frame of a promise made from God that had not yet materialized? What if someone said to you, "God's timing is perfect." You may have responded, "Maybe for God it is, but for me I'm not so sure." When God goes silent, we often think that something is wrong - we think that God's sense of timing may be a little off.
And we would be wrong.
In that 400 years of silence, much happened (not the least of which was the rising of Alexander the Great who enabled most of the known world to be aquainted with the language of Greek, as well as the rise of the Roman Empire that paved travel routes around the known world). The significance of this had everything to do with God's timing, and His Sovereign activity over the kingdoms of men to serve His own purposes. When everything was in place - an expectant people in Israel, a language for the message to be understood, and travel routes ready for the messengers of the good news - Christ came. And it was at just the right time.
So, Christmas is a great reminder. It's a reminder that God has not forgotten us. It's a reminder that He is Sovereign over the affairs and kingdoms of men. And it's a reminder that His timing is always, without fail, 100% perfect - even when He doesn't let us in on what He is doing.
