In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. John 1:1-3

Christmas is so much more than a babe in a manger. Christmas is a cosmic event.

According to Charles W. Petit, scientists confront a ‘fine-tuning problem,’ as they examine the heavens. “The universe appears marvelously constructed to produce stars, planets, and life. Scientists have calculated that if the force binding atomic nuclei were just 0.5 percent different, the processes that forge atoms inside stars would have failed to produce either carbon or oxygen—key ingredients to life. If gravity were only slightly stronger or weaker, stars like our sun could not have formed. Yet physicists see no reason why the constants of nature are set just so.”

Contemporary astronomer Allan Sandage, Edwin Hubble’s successor at Mt. Wilson and Mt. Palomar observatories… told the New York Times, “I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God, to me … is the explanation of the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing.” On another occasion, Sandage said, “If God did not exist; science would have to invent Him to explain what it is discovering at its core.”

The truth is that our ability to exist on this planet is due to the fact that the universe is balanced on a razor’s edge in order to facilitate life.

The earth-shaking thing that the Apostle John tells us in the first few verses of his gospel is that ho kosmos (Greek for the orderly universe that scientists observe) was made through ho Logos, the Word – Christ. He is the agent of creation. He’s the one who “hung the stars.”

Paul elaborates on this in Colossians 1:16-17. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

John is clearly stating that the ‘Logos’ – the ultimate spiritual force behind the universe – is responsible for all that is visible. The mud you squish between your toes, the cold morning air rushing at you as you go out to crank the car, the water running through your hair as you shower all were made by Him. The fact that you and I exist in an incredibly complex yet orderly universe designed to sustain life is because this same Logos – who existed before the universe began – made it so.

He is also clearly stating that the “Logos,” the ultimate spiritual force behind the universe, is responsible for all of the invisible forces, not only the physics but the spiritual forces, at work in the universe. “Through him all things were made…”, or in Paul’s words, “whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.”

Physicists make a study of the physical laws, the foundational physical forces that make the universe, or universes, tick. They will tell you that even with all the things they’ve been able to discover they don’t know the tiniest tenth of all of the facts. They know even less about the spiritual world. The only reliable source of information on the invisible world, the spiritual world, is in the Bible.

The point is that the Logos created everything we can see and everything that we cannot see. He fashioned it, he sustains it, he owns it, he rules it, nothing happens in it apart from his knowledge, and nothing can change in it apart from his permission.

That’s the identity of the babe in the manger. So if you will bear with a little cheesy re-write of a favorite song:
When you when you get up Christmas morning,
with your family all around,
remember it was Christ who hung
the star on the highest bough.
And have yourself a cosmic little Christmas, now.