Revelation 12
For several years, I attended a church in West Michigan called “Mars Hill.” One Christmas the teaching pastor there, Rob Bell, preached from Revelation 12. I had never heard an interpretation of that passage paralleling the Christmas Story as told in the Gospels, but it seemed to piece together. It paints a more violent picture of our beloved Nativity scene. The Gospels give us the observable events that took place surrounding Christ’s birth, but Revelation gives us a hint into the unseen spiritual battle.
Since hearing this interpretation of Revelation 12, I’ve seen Christmas a little differently. I see the baby laying quietly in a manger, but I also think of the miracle of Christ taking on flesh and yet remaining perfect, even under the great temptations that bombard us all. It keeps my eyes a little more perceptive to the warring that continues even now. Verse 17 says, “Then the dragon was enraged at the woman and went off to wage war against the rest of her offspring—those who keep God’s commands and hold fast their testimony about Jesus.”
In this Advent season, may we prepare our hearts to not only embrace the Christ child, but to dare to enter into the unseen, renewing our amazement at such an unlikely Savior.
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