Contributing Author Dickson Igwe
Christmas is here again and for most of the West’s inhabitants it spells the end of one year and the beginning of another, a time of nostalgia, and paradoxically, a time of happiness. It is also a time of frolicking and merrymaking, when families and friends come together around the dining table: turkey, stuffing, black pudding, garnished ham, Christmas pudding, liqueurs, and endless tasty delights.
Children are most excited at Yuletide, with the promises of Santa Claus’ stealthy visit, and his fabled drop down the chimney to fill a Christmas stocking, and leave that greatly desired three speed bicycle under the Christmas tree. But there is a much deeper meaning to the Christmas celebration. Christmas or the celebration of the birth of one Jesus Christ is a paradigm that knits science with theology, and philosophy with religion. Christmas is about life and death matters, and the existence of good and evil! But ultimately, Christmas is about the beginning of the end of evil in all its forms!
Now the world as we know it is near infinite in its physical insignificance and size when compared to the Cosmos: a tiny speck in a vast and limitless space set afloat by gravity, in a seemingly arbitrary and timeless elliptical orbit around a massive star. This is a paradox of physics first discovered by one Sir Isaac Newton. On the other hand the universe is infinitely massive, as another sage scientist: Sir Stephen Hawkin, a guru in the esoterica called Quantum Physics, has pointed out. In fact the physical universe is so large it is essentially immeasurable, and its furthest extent can only be remotely perceived with the most esoteric type math and calculus. 
Recently, astronomers have discovered a black hole in space three hundred million (300,000,000) light years away from earth that is capable of containing twenty one billion (21,000,000,000) suns. Now when you consider the size of the sun, and that this massive star at the center of our galaxy is ninety three million (93,000,000) miles away from our tiny home and planet named earth, and yet powers life on this tiny speck of dirt, then you begin to understand that a black hole this massive determines that as far as time and space is concerned, man is less than nothing. His life is like the vapor, gone before he knows it! If it were possible to drive to the sun by car, 93 million miles away, it would take you a lifetime. Now consider a region of space that contains 21 billion of these stars: yes it defies the imagination!
For decades, the National Aviation and Space Agency, NASA, and its allies around the world have looked for life in space apart from earth: they haven’t found anything yet. It has been speculation upon speculation, and the more they investigate, the lonelier the world appears in a universe of unimaginable ferocity and violence, with massive meteors the size of a mountain range hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour vaporizing everything in their ominous paths.
This search for life sometimes borders on the absurd, and costs billions of dollars annually. The brightest minds get excited at discovering a planet that might once have contained rivers of water: but the idea that life may have existed on a Mars owing to the remote chance that water once was present there, is never unassailable fact. Yet, a microscopic planet that brims over with life continues to sit untroubled, in a massive and violent emptiness of unimaginably vast proportion, and has been doing so for billions of years. If anything, research by NASA needs to be redirected in the opposite direction, back to Earth, incredible as this may seem!
Now, a black hole absorbs everything caught within its gravitational pull, and contains within its immeasurable perimeters a density that is unimaginable as it is vast. A black hole is so dense that even light which travels at one hundred and eighty six thousand (186,000) miles a second or seven hundred million (700,000,000) miles an hour, cannot escape a black hole. The regions of the universe that contain these collapsed stars are terrible and foreboding places, and black holes can only be observed with the most complex instruments and powerful telescopes, at the cutting edge of physics and astronomy.
Mankind may never know if there is life in space. But consider this: astronomers believe that they have found a planet of similar nature and geography to earth, that is only six hundred (600) light years away. But when you consider the distance of a light year, that it is one hundred and eighty six thousand (186,000) miles a second multiplied by how many seconds there are in a day, and then multiply that by the days in a year, you only begin to touch on how far away this planet is. It is perfectly unreachable and will probably always be.
Looking at these numbers and one begins to understand that talking about eternity in a physical sense is possible. We are promised three score and ten, and if extra blessed many of us will receive four score and more. Therefore ‘a mere six hundred light years,’ compared with seventy (70) is for all intents and purposes an eternity.
For the astute professor of physics, a black hole of unimaginable distance from earth and of catastrophic density is where science ends and philosophy and theology begins: where the philosopher and theologian are handed the baton of inquiry. Is there a God? What happens after death? What is the purpose of this infinitely short and fragile life we possess? What is beyond space? These are the questions philosophy and theology attempt to answer, questions that empirical science cannot, owing to its overwhelming orientation on what can be observed.
Yes, life when compared to time and space is insignificant indeed, and the wisest of kings, the Ancient Solomon, declared thousands of years ago, after decades of seeking and learning, that all is ‘’vanity and vexation of spirit,’’ a striving for nothing, and meaningless. Ultimately all hunger for power and success will end one day at the mouth of the grave, death is the great leveler. And one sage man reminded many in his book that when the grim reaper knocks, it is not the state of your bank account that will matter, but the state of loving relationships.
Five thousand (5000) years hence, similar to the period of all recorded human history, an extremely short time when one considers the age of the universe, billions of years old, if humanity remains, our way of life will be the research matter of archeologists, anthropologists, and historians of the time. We will all be dust, and more durable type creatures: fossils.
Yes, when it comes to the why of things, the answers lie where science cannot go, or as Thomas Aquinas stated, ‘’reason is the servant of faith:’’ in other words, there comes a time when science bows to philosophy and theology. Christians believe, and Christian history attests to this in every parameter, that a Creative Genius, of unimaginable power, living simultaneously outside and inside time and space created all things as we know them: including a black hole of the massiveness of twenty one billion (21,000,000,000) suns. You either believe this or do not: it is a matter of belief!
Science and philosophy apart however, life on that speck of dirt in an infinite massiveness is far from perfect. If anything it can be downright difficult: a state filled with sorrow and woe for millions of the earth’s inhabitants. In rich countries, wealth and success has not brought happiness: comfort is not a synonym for happiness. And if anything, wealth brings its own litany of pain and sorrow, as many a rich person can attest.
In the poorer parts of the planet, the daily struggle for existence leaves little time for thought about the more complex issues of this transient state. Millions go to bed each night hungry, and millions of others are threatened daily by a host of evils from living under poverty, despair and tyranny; to recessionary cycles in the developed world which determines that the normative high standards of living of millions of middle and working class people have been accustomed to is certainly no longer guaranteed.
Theology insists that this was not meant to be. And a simple observation of the beauty of nature and the power of creation will show that God had to be a force for good behind so glorious a natural world and seemingly infinite a universe. Yes, the human condition is far from perfect: famine and war; divorce and separation; sickness and death; family quarrel and dysfunction; irritation and anger; murder and crime; the list of life’s woes in the miserable human condition seems endless.
Evil, pain and despair were never part of the plan of a God of omnipotence and omniscience. But his idea of creating beings like Himself, with freedom of thought, choice and action, meant that He had to leave them alone when they went the wrong way. And strange as that may seem, that was what having a free will determined. So when man made the wrong choice and evil entered into creation, God had two choices: destroy what He created and start something brand new, or rescue His creation by an astonishing act of divine intervention.
God chose the latter course. God does not make mistakes, and even though the creation of mankind may have proven precipitous and calamitous, as all who live in this sinful and wicked world can attest, He decided to correct the course of world history from a trajectory heading in the direction of awful catastrophe toward another direction, pointing to an unimaginably glorious eternity where He would be Supreme Governor. And if the truth be told, we all can sense the overwhelming evil that is a very real part of human existence. The reality of sickness and death; the tendency of human nature to head in the direction of sinful and wicked behavior; the pride and selfishness that is so much a part of our character; the moral errors of daily existence.
One of the greatest deceptions of this life is the lie from Satan that he does not exist; that there is no alternate universe where evil resides; that dark angels and demons do not exist. The truth is that the devil is indeed very real, he is the architect of evil, and scripture explains how Lucifer came to kill, steal and destroy: he has never had any good intention since the time of his fall. He hates mankind to a degree unimaginable. He is destined for eternal damnation and destruction, and his greatest desire is to take humanity with him. But how does Christmas relate to the devil?
If anything, Christmas can be a lonely time for many. It is a time to remember loved ones passed on. The lesser fortunate, the poor, the homeless, the refugee, are reminded of their condition, and the charity of the rich who intervene, albeit altruistically, to keep them warm and fed during the festive season.
Christmas is similar to an escalator or conveyor belt. December is the very apex of the retail and marketing year. As December approaches there is an intangible pull on the consumer to begin the process of opening up his or her wallet to spend on a host of products that keeps the Walt Disneys and Wal-Marts of this commercial world order in business. The factories of China are producing at full capacity at this time of the year. Supporting industries: transporters; shippers; air cargo; FEDEX; UPS; DHL; all are on overdrive.
The greatest percentage of retail sales revenues are earned in December. There is a frenzy to buy this or that; children are excited about what Santa Clause is to deposit under the ubiquitous Christmas tree; the ferries are filled with shoppers visiting St. Thomas, those West Indians fortunate enough to access the United States, in search of that all engrossing bargain. So much so, that most forget what Christmas is all about. Christmas has become a paradoxical orgy of generosity and greed: and all who get caught up in the festivity of the season are compliant. This is a tradition that is deeply embedded in the social psyche, in the community DNA: it will not change anytime soon.
But Christmas is much more than this. It is the celebration of the greatest event in world history. The very manifestation of the overwhelming power and omniscience of deity: The Creator of time and space: the breadth, depth and extent thereof, unimaginable to mortal man, did the seemingly unimaginable. The creator of billions of galaxies, our own included, and of a universe of mind boggling proportion stepped into His creation, a baby in a manger at the height of the Empire of Rome over two millennia past.
This was a miracle so astonishing that even today it has the most brilliant minds: philosophers, scientists, academics, theologians, scholars, looking at it with awe and amazement. A miracle much more easily comprehended by the simple mindset of children and those adults who possess the rare gift of childlike faith.
Now this is what Christmas is really all about: all of the magic in the air, the preciousness of family and close relationships, the great expectancy of the little child waiting for Christmas morn, the material expectancy of the adult consumer, the end of a tough year and the beginning of another, Church celebrations, Christmas decorations, lights, music and carols, Santa Clause, reindeer, snowmen, Christmas parades, and so on and so forth. These are all symbolic of the greatest gift of all time.
In order to understand Christmas, it is requisite to quote the great Apostle Paul who admonished in his Letter to the Corinthian Church that ‘’ our light momentary affliction is ever more preparing for us an everlasting weight of glory, beyond all measure, excessively surpassing all comparisons and calculations, a vast and transcendent glory and blessedness never to cease. Paul admonishes the suffering human being in all his or her myriad weaknesses to ‘’ look not at the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are visible are brief and fleeting, but the things that are invisible are deathless and everlasting.’’ Christmas is about God’s gift of a glorious eternity through the birth and subsequent death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.
Yes, the greatest Christmas present ever given, was the gift of a second chance for a dying humanity on a collision course with horrific calamity: this was the gift of God’s eternal love.
