We Pause In Our Celebration of Christ's Birth To Witness The End of the World

Well, it would seem we're all still here. Again. Doing some quick digging, it seems the end of the world has been predicted over 240 times since Jesus walked the earth. That's 240 dates for the end of all things. Apparently, there's even another one coming up in 2016, since the whole Mayan calendar thing didn't work out.

And, since we're at it, we might as well predict exactly how the world will end. Nuclear war was a big one for a few decades. I guess it's still under consideration, but not quite as prevalent since the Cold War. Acid Rain? We don't hear a whole lot about that either, anymore. Not that it isn't still there... I guess it's just not as "in" right now. Global Warming. Or at least, some kind of climate change. Warnings, all. Change your ways, people. The end is nigh.

It's weird how even secular apocalypses take on something of a religious quality, isn't it? In the case of the 2012 Mayan apocalypse, there's even that thread of mysticism.

This fascination we have with our own mortality may have something to do with how temporary we really are. I begin to wonder if this constant warning of impending doom isn't more spiritual than it first appears. A realization, perhaps, that we are not meant to live on this world forever. A longing for our true home.

As the New Testament often reminds us, we are strangers to this world. As people who belong to Christ, we Christians are ambassadors to this world. It is not our home. So, we do long for the day when Christ returns to reign again over this Earth, to welcome His children to His side.

Is it so strange, then, that even the nonbelieving world would have this ingrained, instinctive desire? That even unbelievers would see and know that something isn't right with the world they know, and long for some catastrophic event to change the very face of what they know -- and to, perhaps, forge something better from the wreckage?

It's not that we're a planet full of nihilists. It's that we're eternal beings, with an instinctive longing for Eternity.

So it's proper, I think, in the season when we remember the coming of Christ as a small child, to look forward, as well, to His returning as triumphant King.