One night several years ago, I woke up from a deep sleep with my wife leaning over me in our bed, praying intensely. Concerned that something must be wrong, I mumbled, “Baby, what’s going on?” And she replied, “Don’t worry about it.” I lifted my head and said, “Are you sure?” But she didn’t say anything and just laid back down. I figured she’d had a nightmare, so I went back to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up feeling unsettled because, apart from Geo’s apparent sleep-talking, I’d had a nightmare about being chased through the woods by Satan. Over breakfast, I told Geo and the kids about it. “I had the craziest dream about being chased by the Devil.” The kids laughed, but Geo said, “It wasn’t a dream, he wanted to hurt you, so I stayed up and prayed for you.”
This may sound insane to you, but I’ve known my wife for almost twenty-eight years now, and this sort of thing is par for the course. She’s not insane; she’s a mystic, a true believer. Geo has an ongoing, supernatural conversation with God that gives her certain insights into the spiritual realm. Here’s the difference between her and me: she knows a spiritual reality exists beyond the physical world, and she happily dwells in that reality. I also know there’s a spiritual world, but I’m usually too afraid or too distracted to think about it.
There are two worldviews at odds with each other in our culture today. On the one hand, there are the materialists, skeptics who think about reality in terms of utility and believe the world would be a better place if people stopped being superstitious and exercised a little common sense. Materialists believe that people are smart enough to fix our own problems without religious “crutches” like supernatural thoughts and prayers. In the materialist worldview, we are all we’ve got. Even if God is real, we can’t see or hear Him, so He’s basically a non-factor in our everyday lives.
On the other hand, there are people like my wife: the mystics, who think about reality in terms of destiny and believe the world would be a better place if people understood their divine purpose and worth. Not only is God real to the mystics, He is an ever-present reality. They see evidence of Him in nature, in a lush forest or a starry night. They talk to Him, and sometimes they even hear from Him. When bad things happen, materialists want someone to blame, but mystics say things like, “Everything happens for a reason” and “I know God has a plan.”
Everybody gets to decide whether they want to be a materialist or a mystic, and we are all either one or the other. The distinctions between materialists and mystics are clear, especially at Christmas. Think about every Christmas movie you ever saw: in A Christmas Carol, Cratchet is a mystic, and Scrooge is a materialist. In How the Grinch Stole Christmas, the Whos are the mystics, and the Grinch is a materialist. In Elf, Buddy is a mystic, his dad is a materialist. You get the idea.
You might think that all Christians are mystics, but that’s not always the case. I’ve known plenty of Christian materialists. We often refer to them as “Cultural Christians.” These are the folks who try to behave like Christians should while also believing like the world does. This is quite common because it’s easier to be a materialist than it is to be a mystic.
Consider some recent headlines in the news: rarely does a week go by without another tragic mass shooting. A materialist looks at such a tragedy and believes there is a simple solution. If he is a liberal materialist, he’ll say we need fewer guns, but if he’s a conservative materialist, he’ll say we need more good guys with guns. Simple as that. The mystic, meanwhile, hears about another mass shooting and proceeds to pray, rebuking sin and evil in the name of Jesus. It doesn’t mean that mystics don’t support common-sense policies; they just understand that, if we lose the spiritual war, policy battles won’t matter.
So which are you? How do you perceive reality? As a materialist, or a mystic?
If you’re not sure where you land in this dichotomy, your understanding of Christmas is a great litmus test. In the Bible, there are two popular perspectives of the Christmas story (Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2) that are told from Earth’s point of view. But there’s also a third version of the story in Scripture that is often overlooked: the birth of Christ according to the book of Revelation.
Revelation is a mystical head trip; materialists often read it and think, “This is the kind of superstitious baloney that turns people away from religion.” But they’re just not getting it because their minds are locked into the materialistic worldview. Revelation is simply a retelling of the entire story of Scripture, written by one of Jesus’ closest friends, the Apostle John, from a mystical perspective. In chapter twelve, we find the supernatural side of Christmas:
A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the earth.
The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth, so that it might devour her child the moment he was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who “will rule all the nations with an iron scepter.” And her child was snatched up to God and to his throne. The woman fled into the wilderness to a place prepared for her by God, where she might be taken care of for 1,260 days. Then war broke out in heaven…
Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon,and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
– Revelation 12:1-9
It’s not something we tend to think about at Christmas, but according to John, Satan was present when Christ was born. As Mary pushed through her labor pains, the Devil crouched in front of her like a dragon, waiting to devour her newborn Son, thus destroying God’s plan to save the world through Him. The vile Dragon was invisible to the material world, but he was there nonetheless.
You see, John – along with all of Jesus’ closest followers – was a big believer in Satan. In one of his letters, he wrote:
“The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.” – 1 John 3:8
And Simon Peter echoed John’s concern, warning the first Christians to:
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” – 1 Peter 5:8
Peter and John were two men who knew Jesus best, and they firmly believed in a malevolent, stealthy Enemy who is hell-bent on destroying God’s plans to save us. Much like my wife, they were mystics because Jesus taught them to see that reality is more than merely material: it is spiritual.
God has given you the gift of agency and free will, so the worldview you claim is your choice to make. But be careful. Materialism is a trap and a fast-track to hell, not because God will get mad and send you there, but because, eventually, you’ll become your own god. Materialists spend their whole lives building monuments to themselves, and it’s a universal truth that our shrines of self-worship invariably become prison cells, sooner or later.
My hope for you this Christmas is that your eyes will be opened to the deeper, spiritual reality that exists all around us.
The lights we’ll lift at our Christmas Eve services tomorrow are more than mere candles: they are tiny icons of the Light of God that came from Heaven to chase away the Devil’s darkness.
The gifts we’ll exchange this Wednesday are more than simply materialistic trinkets that make us happy for a while: they are reminders of the supernatural Christmas gift that God delivered through Mary to give us joy, forever.
And the baby whose birth we’re about to celebrate was more than just “the little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes.” He is the tip of Heaven’s spear and the destroyer of Hell’s darkness. He is our Dragon-slayer!
Open your eyes and your heart to the spiritual side of Christmas this year. Awaken your soul to the Christmas angels – and the Cosmic dragon – and allow yourself to celebrate this season with a little more awe and wonder.
