Why is there a need for Christmas? We know the need for the Cross but why Christmas? Why is there a need for the Christ to be born in a lowly manger, to grow up through infancy, adolescence, teenage and adulthood to reach 30 before He could finally go to the Cross? Why go through all the trouble? Why not just incarnate the Christ at age 30, so that He can start his ministry and then go to the Cross immediately? Why wait 30 years?
I suspect that the very answer to this question is also the answer to why God doesn't just take us up to heaven when we accept Him but allows us to continue here on earth, as difficult as it may be. It seems as if God takes a long time to get anything done. I mean, haven't they been talking about the 2nd coming for the last 2000 years? Sometimes the things we pray for today do not bear fruit until years later. At other times, God persists in allowing us to struggle with a thorn, despite repeated prayers for deliverance. Why?
The answer, I think, is the word called "process". "Process" is defined as "a series of actions, changes, or functions bringing about a result." I hazard a guess that there must be some purpose to the wait, that that purpose is to allow for some form of process so that ultimately, a desired result will emerge. Ultimately, some things just takes time. And when it comes to soul-making, you just cant run away from the process time.
What then is the process? Life has been defined by the Romantic British poet John Keats as the 'vale' (ie. valley) of soul making'. From a Christian standpoint, the soul is the essence of the person, comprising our mind (the way we think), our emotions (the way we feel) and our free will (the ability to be autonomous). The soul is who we are, our personality, our being. In every life, when the Spirit of God breathes the breath of life into our mortal frame, there lights the flame of life which is the soul. From the time of first light, at birth, the soul continues beyond death into eternity. Life then, is the process by which the soul grows and develops and is sanctified. In this process, we move from intellectual immaturity, emotional immaturity, and moral immaturity to intellectual maturity, emotional maturity and moral maturity. The developed and mature soul bears likeness to the character of God Himself. Such a person thinks the way God does, feels the way God does and decides the way God does.
This then begs the next question, why doesn't God just zap us to become matured persons and not have to go through the painful process of growth in this life? The answer, because the growth process can only be done by a series of small free-will choices made by us throughout the process. We have to participate in the growth process. At each step of the process, we are faced with choices and decisions, each choice and decision bearing moral consequences. If we make the correct moral and wise choice, we move to the next level. If we don’t, we stagnate or retrogress. I have always said that who we will be in 20 years times depends on the series of small choices we make each day. We just don’t wake up one morning and find ourselves in a certain state. We are a product of our choices, and especially more so, when it comes to the business of soul making.
It was the same for the Christ. Hebrews tells us that the Christ had to learn obedience by His suffering, so that He could become the perfect author of our salvation. The perfect sacrifice could only come from a life lived perfectly in obedience to God.
So why is there a need for Christmas? Because without Christmas, there can be no Cross. Without the process, there can be no end result. So you are reading this and are currently struggling with your thorn, wondering why God is slow to hear and to act, remember Christmas - because from Christmas to the Cross, there was the process. God is building something in us that we cannot see now. For Paul writes in 2 Corinthians that our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. God bless and Merry Christmas.