Man on Moon; God on Earth The maiden visit of Christ on Earth

Rev L Simon Raomai *

Evening of Christmas at Imphal area on December 24 2014 :: Pix - Bond Armando

Where were you on the evening of July 20, 1969? Did you stand outside and look up into the sky at the Moon? A whole generations of human - an estimated five hundred million people - watched on Television as Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin landed their Lunar Module, the Eagle, on the Moon's Sea of tranquility.

As this historic event unfolded, and the first human stood on the surface of the Moon, the radio listeners and Television viewers around the World watched and listened with bated breath as the centuries - old dream of man had finally come to fruition! The feat, once regarded by brilliant minds as impossible, had at last become a reality. The memories of that great event are still ringing fresh in my memory too.

I still remember the news broadcasting as a very small boy before my schooling as we listened to our radio (Philips skipper) my father owned sitting along with my childhood friends around the hearth. He was narrating us that man had landed on the Moon which is the greatest single event in recorded history at that time.

Yet, the greatest single event in the recorded history, the incredible journey of God from heaven coming down to our beautiful World in the person of His son, Jesus Christ over two thousand years ago. I speak of "God's Earth-walk”. God paid a visit to our planet earth on Christmas for a great mission of saving the sinners. That is essentially what the Incarnation was - God interjecting Himself into the stream of human life, fraternizing with man whom He had created, entering into his joys and sorrows, and ultimately taking in His own body the judgment by a Holy God against spiritual treason.

The Bible says this celestial visitor was "the expressed image of His person” (Hebrews 1:3). The writer of Hebrew also says God made man a "little lower than the angels' (Heb 2:7). God didn't make man for the moon, or some other planet: The earth is His Kingdom. God did not come to take us out of hell, but to take hell out of us. God did not come to take us to heaven but to bring down heaven to us. Therefore, Jesus prayed "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” Men had landed on the Moon, but we will not inhabit it. God made the Moon to light our nights, not as a dwelling place for man.

Christ came to the world through a divine miraculous birth which was conceived in a hired womb of a virgin woman, born in an obscure small town called Bethlehem, the Child of peasant parents. He grew up in another village. He shared our babyhood, our youth, manhood, he walked on our highway and byways. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty, and for three & half years he was an itinerant preacher.

He never wore a boots or a shoes. He never drove a Bolero rather than riding on a donkey. He never wrote a book. He never hold an office. He never owned a house. He never had a family. He never went to college or university. He never put His feet inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born.

He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness or achievements. He had no credential but Himself. Yet He fed the hungry, healed the sick, forgave the sinners and raised even the dead while He was on earth.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves. He accomplished His mission by saying 'it is finished'! The coming of Christ to this world is far and away the greatest event in all history. It is my prayer that you have taken the step of faith that will make it the most significant and meaningful in your life during this Christmas.

Let us invite and welcome Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace to be born in our hearts and homes during this Christmas so that we will experience the real joy of His presence in our midst as the unseen special guest. Do you have any room for Him?

Blessed Christmas!