Stereovision

“The Spirit of the sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” - Isaiah 61:1

The concept of 3-D vision is quite interesting. Because human beings’ eyes are located side-by-side in the front of the head, each eye takes a view of the same area from a slightly different angle. Each eye picks up visual information that the other doesn’t. As each eye captures its own view, the two separate images are sent to the brain for processing. When those two images arrive simultaneously in the brain, they are united into one picture and the end result is that what you are seeing is a three dimensional, stereo picture. In stereovision, you see an object the way it should be seen – in three spacial dimensions (width, height, and depth). It is this added perception of the depth dimension that makes 3-D viewing and stereovision so special.

The majority of this world doesn’t see Christmas in its full dimension. When we think about Christmas we generally think about two questions: When? And What? We think about when Christmas is and the whole goal is to focus on that one magical day – December 25th. We also focus on the What? of Christmas…What are we going to give? What gifts do we want? For most people, that is where the Christmas thinking stops. We see a 2-D Christmas, missing the most important part.

There is a third dimension of Christmas; and it is this third dimension that gives the depth to Christmas. This dimension is the Why? Why do we celebrate Christmas? Why do billions of people celebrate the birth of a baby in a non-descript town, in a relatively meaningless country, two thousand years ago?

In order to answer that question, we must understand why Jesus came to this earth in the first place. Why was He born? Christmas exists because sin exists. Jesus came to free us from the prison of our sin. He is the answer to the world’s biggest problem. Until we realize our sin problem, we will never be able to fully grasp the depth of what happened that night in Bethlehem.

Father, I don’t want to miss the third dimension of Christmas. Help me to see past the holiday frenzy to real reason we celebrate – Jesus.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.