An Unconventional Christmas Eve Message

On this Christmas Eve, we prepare our hearts and lives to celebrate the arrival of our Lord Jesus Christ on Christmas day. His birth defied the natural laws of biology, physics and chemistry.  Born as 100% God and 100% man from the virgin Mary, the birth of the Son of God is supernatural.

When natural laws are harnessed in new ways or defied by outright miracles, our eyes naturally turn to the Creator of heaven and earth.

Christmas eve, 1906 — Harnessing sound waves 

Americans were enjoying the communication abilities of the telegraph at this time in history. The maintenance and unsightly appearance of telegraph wires was an annoyance, but the greater communication problem was that people on land could not communicate with their family members at sea. There was a real drive for physicists to figure out how to send voice wirelessly.

Professor Reginald A. Fessenden made the first wireless radio broadcast from Brant Rock, Massachesetts on Christmas eve. Listen HERE to the first broadcast (5:28 minutes long) consisting of a recording of Largo, from Handel’s opera Xerxes, a violinist playing Oh, Holy Night (begins at 2:41) and a Scripture reading of Luke 2:9-14 (begins at 4:14).

Christmas eve, 1968— Overcoming gravitational pull

Apollo 11 was the mission that landed on the moon on July 16, 1969. What many don’t know is that Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to leave the gravitational pull of the earth and enter lunar orbit on Christmas eve of 1968. Though the crew didn’t land, these men were the first to see the moon in person. Listen HERE as the three-man crew took turns reading Genesis 1:1-10 (KJV). I have it written below, but click to hear their voices!

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Trivia: Madalyn Murray O’Hair  filed a lawsuit against NASA “objecting to religious texts being read from a government spaceship on the grounds that it violated the separation of church and state…. She lost the suit, but because of the controversy NASA didn’t advertise or televise Buzz Aldrin’s decision to take the Last Supper on the moon” on Apollo 11 before Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon.*

Christmas eve 2024 — God comes to earth as a baby

Christmas eve seems to be a night of breakthrough. Today is no exception as we celebrate the breakthrough of God defying natural laws to arrive on earth in human form as a baby. Take time to ponder this truth today. Maybe pray in the shadows of a lighted Christmas tree. Perhaps read Scripture like astronauts and physicists were led to do on momentous occasions — maybe because they knew they were witnessing something out of this world. The birth of Jesus is certainly a miracle. Let’s treat it as one.

Merry Christmas.

* Information about the first radio broadcast appears in many media textbooks, like Media Essentials, Fifth Edition, Campbell, pages 161-162.

**Information about the Apollo 8 mission in this post is paraphrased from The Last Supper on the Moon, Levi Lusko, pages 251-255.

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