I can think of no better season for a magazine about awe and wonder than Christmas.
I can also think of no season when it’s been harder for me to stop, ponder, and behold. This last week has been one of my busiest ever at Christianity Today. We’ve had an exposé of abuse in a small but well-funded Nashville church, the shutdown of a major evangelical ministry, a college suspending a professor in a theology dispute, two significant theologians’ deaths, and a bunch of other “hot” but sad stories. I get home, see the tree in the living room, and experience a strange discontinuity. Oh. Right. It’s Christmas.
It doesn’t take long after stepping outside the news rush before it starts to sink in that there really is joy to the world. The Lord really is come. Working on The Behemoth helps a lot. I can hear heaven and nature sing and see glimpses of God ruling the world with truth and grace. (I loved researching and writing this issue’s article on virgin births. And I’ve been wanting to share my colleague’s astrophotography with you since we started this magazine.)
We worked on this issue knowing that some of you would read it before Christmas and some of you wouldn’t get to it until later. We know this season is busy for you, too. But whenever you’re unwrapping this, I hope it helps to remind you that there really are wonders out there. Wonders, wonders, wonders of his love. (A little cheesy, right? Go with it. It’s Christmas.)
