For unto us a child is born…
—Isaiah 9:6a

Whenever I hear that line from the prophet Isaiah sung in Handel’s Messiah, Christmas comes alive to me. Doesn’t matter if the singer is Kathleen Battle or little Kathy in the elementary school’s brave attempt at oratorio, the words carry the power of the voice of God announcing great news.

Where I live, the nearest large city newspaper features scads of bad news on its front page. But for one day of the year, Christmas Day, that front page is wrapped in a full-size, four-color rendition of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child, as depicted by a famous painting master of the past. For this one day, all the news in the world is covered by something more earth-shattering—the Messiah has come.

I think the Cincinnati Enquirer’s tradition should inform us all. Wrapped in the knowledge that the Messiah has come, what evil power can rock us, what sadness curtail our joy?

This is my wish for everyone this Christmas Eve. Take a moment to reflect that we no longer wait like the faithful in the intertestamental period, that four hundred years of brutal silence. Like Simeon, we can now grasp peace, a peace made all the more certain because of an empty tomb.

Have a blessed Christmas,

Dan Edelen

{Image: Detail from a Russian icon. Artist unknown.}