It is today that we celebrate Jesus’ birthday as our Savior. Jesus’ name in Hebrew (Yeshua) means “God saves.” The other name given to him at birth, Immanuel, means “God with us.” Both are fitting. We today celebrate the birth of the God-man who saves us from our sins and is with us always and forever.

Advent is a celebration of comings—of Christ’s comings. For the past 4 weeks we’ve been anticipating and celebrating the story of Christ’s First Coming. In this story we’ve explored what we are calling the First Act of God’s Story. This act includes the first two major plot movements—the events of Creation (the beginning) and the Fall (the conflict). We’ve seen God take the initiative in Creation, bringing the universe into existence. And in the Fall, Adam and Eve chose to rebel against God and thereby they reordered the universe’s operation. And God …