The Person of All Ages
At this moment, every year, people have come to anticipate “The Man of the Year” or “The Person of the Year” selected by TIME magazine. Several institutions also choose to honor someone in a similar fashion. Sometimes such choices make sense, while quite often one wonders how such selection was ever reached.
During this same period, each year, Christians around the world are privileged to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child, the promised Deliverer which God, since the Fall of our first parents, promised to the human race.
Although it took so long for that promise to be fulfilled, it all came to pass exactly as prophets had foretold. Jesus was born of the virgin Mary in the city of Bethlehem of Judea. And the life He lived in the years following His birth, also fulfilled many prophecies of old, especially regarding the primary work He came to fulfill - to give His life-blood on a cruel cross, to satisfy divine justice and reconcile many humans to God.
He was born in humble conditions, with stable animals as His first worshippers, visited by poor shepherds who then belonged to a much despised profession, besides receiving homage also from wise men from the east who followed a star leading to where the child resided.
Sadly, though, the testimony of Holy Scripture also alludes to the fact that “He came to His own, but His own received Him not.” Yet, it also adds that “as many as received Him, to them gave He the authority to become children of God, even to them who believe in His name” (John 1:11-12).
Nevertheless, His humble human origin and the rigid conditions He had to endure, culminating with His death on the cross, cannot rob Him from being perennially, “The Person of All Ages.” As such, He deserves our honor not merely at Christmas, during the celebration of His birthday, but at all times, for He rules the world, He remains the Prince of Peace, He alone is still the giver of life, and life more abundant.
His earthly pilgrimage was limited to only about 33 years. Yet, before His first advent, and until His second coming He was and continues to be, and to accomplish, all which Holy Scripture describes about His Person. He is the meaning of history, the glue of the universe, which holds all things together. Even now He still superintends all the affairs of humans and of nations. And He shall return to earth to take vengeance on all His enemies, and rescue His redeemed into new realms which He continues to prepare for those who have put their trust in Him alone for their eternal destiny.
Any “Man or Woman of the Year” will be quickly forgotten. But the One Who is “The Person of All Ages” shall reign forever and ever, for His Kingdom has no end. Why not acknowledge Him as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, as the loving Son of the Living God Who freely offers life and light and meaning which no one else is capable of providing? Heed His own words: “I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).
