11th December

Written by Jo Oughton

Angels From the Realms of Glory

‘Though an infant now we view him, He shall fill His Father’s throne.’

One of my favourite films as a child was the Walt Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. Three good fairies stand around Aurora’s cradle at her birth and wish for beauty and a lovely singing voice, as I remember. Then Maleficent arrives. She predicts death for Aurora at 16. The third fairy tries to prevent Maleficent’s future from coming true but can only change the death to a sleep that only true love’s kiss can break.

As we stand around Christ’s cradle we also know his future, which is even more incredible than Sleeping Beauty’s. This child we see is fully human, seemingly weak and helpless, and yet he is also fully divine. His future has been foretold throughout the Old Testament and to Mary when she is asked to take on the position of Mother of God. We sing of his birth thousands of years later because this birth will save the world. God’s plan is to come to earth in human form, live a life with all its human messiness, and then to die at the hands of those same humans. This death also is changed by love, not true loves kiss, but self-sacrificing love that takes our sins upon itself and is redeemed by the ever loving Father. The power of sin is defeated and that human man is risen.

Christ is that infant in the cradle and yet is also throned alongside his Father. The battle against sin is won, and death is defeated, just as Maleficent is beaten in the film and Aurora grows to take her place as royalty alongside her parents. This Christmas, when you see the Christ child, remember the sacrifice he made so we may have life in all its fullness. When you see the infant in the cradle this Christmas remember that he is the same person who rules with God on high.